if you had a billion dollars...
$Zero
what would you do?
how would it change you and your life?
seriously.
think about it before answering.
-$Zero...
wow. that's a lot of typing.
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.writing/msg/29342021416e0e23
funniest two-word joke of all time
http://i32.tinypic.com/294l7iw.jpg
"the dude abides"
-- The Dude (Jeffrey Lebowski)
[actor: Jeff Bridges; from the
film: The Big Lebowski (1998)]
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118715/
Pies de Arcilla
> if you had a billion dollars...
>
> what would you do?
>
> how would it change you and your life?
>
> seriously.
>
> think about it before answering.
The quickest way to get rid of that much money would be to make a gift
to reduce the national debt on my tax return. Hopefully it would
astonish or piss off everyone.
Bill Penrose
> if you had a billion dollars...
>
> what would you do?
I'd buy a Congressman. Then I'd have forty billion dollars.
DB
Bill Penrose
> The quickest way to get rid of that much money would be to make a gift
> to reduce the national debt on my tax return. Hopefully it would
> astonish or piss off everyone.
No. It would make a page 15, 1 inch item in the paper, and the money
would vanish like a spark in a forest fire.
And the national debt would get bigger.
DB
$Zero
including yourself, no doubt.
but you inspire an interesting thought.
donating money to help out the national debt.
when one considers the national debt as an actual entity, one sees
more clearly what the actual value of money truly is.
it's like looking at one of those pictures which compares the size of
the earth to a huge star.
it boggles the mind.
after seeing such a comparison, you say to yourself, why the fuck do i
bother being bothered with such petty bullshit, day in, day out.
and an entrepreneur is born!
-$Zero...
if you had a billion dollars...
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.writing/msg/09c1ec18c1dc1f0a
wow. that's a lot of typing.
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.writing/msg/29342021416e0e23
to essay or not to essay, that is the question
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.writing/msg/2b79f86258a60fe4
$Zero
ok.
then you'd have $40 billion dollars.
so what would you do then?
how would that change your life?
what would you do with all of that money?
how would you spend your time differently?
-$Zero...
if you had a billion dollars...
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.writing/msg/09c1ec18c1dc1f0a
wow. that's a lot of typing.
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.writing/msg/29342021416e0e23
"the dude abides"
Pies de Arcilla
I mean everyone who thought I should spend it on them.
Paying down the national debt effectively divides that billion $
between everyone who has dollars and makes each one worth a little
more. So it's the easiest way to distribute the money widely.
Pies de Arcilla
$Zero wrote:
> On Feb 21, 1:02�am, Pies de Arcilla <dearci...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Feb 21, 12:14�am, "$Zero" <zeroi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > if you had a billion dollars...
> >
> > > what would you do?
> >
> > > how would it change you and your life?
> >
> > > seriously.
> >
> > > think about it before answering.
> >
> > The quickest way to get rid of that much money would be to make a gift
> > to reduce the national debt on my tax return. Hopefully it would
> > astonish or piss off everyone.
>
> including yourself, no doubt.
I might keep a few million so I wouldn't have to work.
But I don't think it would be a good idea for me to have a billion
dollars. Look at it this way, the average person in the U.S. makes a
million or two dollars in their lifetime. That means controlling a
billion dollars is like directing the entire lives of six or seven
hundred people. I'm not up to doing that--I've never even been a
manager at a McDonald's. Or a parent. So I think that it would be
total hubris to try to work out a way to put that much money to use,
even if I thought I could improve the world.
Bill Penrose
> then you'd have $40 billion dollars.
> so what would you do then?
If I was Bill Gates, I'd take half of it and start a foundation
charged with eliminating some of the scourges of mankind, like
tuberculosis and malaria. I'd fund research into developing orphan
drugs for third world diseases.
But since I'm not Bill Gates, I'd probably blow it on a life of
dissolute living, sex, drugs, and rock and roll. It wouldn't matter,
because if I had that much money, I'd be making more faster than I
could spend it.
Dangerous Bill
Bill Penrose
> Paying down the national debt effectively divides that billion $
> between everyone who has dollars and makes each one worth a little
> more. So it's the easiest way to distribute the money widely.
Politicians have a bottomless appetite for money. Did you read
yesterday about some military guy whining because they don't have
enough money for more and bigger weapons? How would you feel if they
took your billion dollars and spent on some half-assed weapons system
that might or might not work? Even then, a billion dollars would only
be a stain on the bottom of the cup. And you'd have thousands of
deaths on your conscience.
Why not buy better armor for our soldiers? Why not grants to wounded
soldiers so they wouldn't have to wait for months for VA services?
Help for returning soldiers who've been declared to have a pre-
existing condition when they come home with PTSD?
How about funding a Constitutional Amendment to prevent wingnuts from
meddling with the Constitution?
Dangerous Bill
Towse
> Why not buy better armor for our soldiers? Why not grants to wounded
> soldiers so they wouldn't have to wait for months for VA services?
> Help for returning soldiers who've been declared to have a pre-
> existing condition when they come home with PTSD?
$$$ for the Fund for Veterans' Education, a fund that supplements GI
Bill benefits, which haven't kept up with the ever-increasing costs of
post-high school education.
<http://www.veteransfund.org/>
--
Sal
Ye olde swarm of links: thousands of links for writers, researchers and
the terminally curious <http://writers.internet-resources.com>
Ray Haddad
card" and Bill Penrose <pen...@iit.edu> instead replied:
>On Feb 21, 4:47 am, "$Zero" <zeroi...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> then you'd have $40 billion dollars.
>> so what would you do then?
>
>If I was Bill Gates, I'd take half of it and start a foundation
>charged with eliminating some of the scourges of mankind, like
>tuberculosis and malaria. I'd fund research into developing orphan
>drugs for third world diseases.
Orphan drugs? Well, aside from that little horror filled concept,
that's exactly what Bill Gates does. He and his wife, that is.
Third world diseases don't infect the US? I didn't know that.
>But since I'm not Bill Gates, I'd probably blow it on a life of
>dissolute living, sex, drugs, and rock and roll. It wouldn't matter,
>because if I had that much money, I'd be making more faster than I
>could spend it.
That's right. It's because you're not Bill Gates.
--
Ray
Bill Penrose
> Third world diseases don't infect the US? I didn't know that.
It's been days since my last attacks of sleeping sickness Chagas
disease, and river blindness.
DB
Ray Haddad
card" and Bill Penrose <pen...@iit.edu> instead replied:
>On Feb 21, 1:18 pm, Ray Haddad <rhad...@iexpress.net.au> wrote:
Teenagers are still affected by sleeping sickness. Everyone knows
that. Irrespective of when you last encountered those diseases, they
do exist worldwide. They just don't move about easily.
--
Ray
Alan Hope
Alan Hope
>On Thu, 21 Feb 2008 10:09:33 -0800 (PST), I said, "Pick a card, any
>card" and Bill Penrose <pen...@iit.edu> instead replied:
>
>>On Feb 21, 4:47 am, "$Zero" <zeroi...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> then you'd have $40 billion dollars.
>>> so what would you do then?
>>
>>If I was Bill Gates, I'd take half of it and start a foundation
>>charged with eliminating some of the scourges of mankind, like
>>tuberculosis and malaria. I'd fund research into developing orphan
>>drugs for third world diseases.
>
>Orphan drugs?
That's what they're called, you stupid fuck.
--
AH
http://grapes2dot0.blogspot.com
Ray Haddad
and Alan Hope <usenet....@gmail.com> instead replied:
No kidding, Hope. Do you agree that they should be produced willy
nilly for "third world" people without proper testing? These kinds
of drugs are allowed to bypass some of the testing and trials that
make drugs safe for you. Oh, wait. You live in Belgium, a third
world, er, third rate, country.
Why not kill a few third world kids or some disease ridden African
just to appear kind to the rest that you don't kill. After all, it's
giving them the drugs in front of the media that counts not the
agonizing death later when they fail their real world trials.
As I stated and you snipped, it's a horror-filled concept. Something
of which you seem to approve.
--
Ray
Bill Penrose
> Why not kill a few third world kids or some disease ridden African
> just to appear kind to the rest that you don't kill. After all, it's
> giving them the drugs in front of the media that counts not the
> agonizing death later when they fail their real world trials.
What the fuck are you talking about? Something real, or some wingnut
figment?
I have a physician friend who is a friend of a WHO official operating
in Africa. Some of her stories would make your nuts pull in all the
way to your diaphragm. A little money and involvement from
philanthropic Westerners rather than predatory Asian countries (okay,
China) would go a long way there. You could treat a whole African
village sometimes for the cost of keeping a suburban momma in
antidepressants. (Or a man in Viagra.)
DB
Ray Haddad
card" and Bill Penrose <pen...@iit.edu> instead replied:
>On Feb 21, 3:40 pm, Ray Haddad <rhad...@iexpress.net.au> wrote:
With untested medications. Good work, that. Test it on those third
world folk to be sure it works right for when you need it. The only
nutty one here, Bill, is the guy who thinks that's a good idea.
Look, the FDA allows for smaller, shorter clinical trials with no
requirement for a double blind just to fast track these drugs. While
it's a noble thought and **probably** safe, the uncertainty of that
is the fact that there's no such thing as 100% safe in the word
"probably."
Bill Gates is going at it the right way. He buys patents where
necessary or pays the royalties to allow generic version of proven
drugs to be sent. He won't be killing any Africans just to fast
track drugs.
--
Ray
Towse
> On Thu, 21 Feb 2008 23:54:28 +0100, I said, "Pick a card, any card"
> and Alan Hope <usenet....@gmail.com> instead replied:
>
>> Ray Haddad goes:
>>
>>> On Thu, 21 Feb 2008 10:09:33 -0800 (PST), I said, "Pick a card, any
>>> card" and Bill Penrose <pen...@iit.edu> instead replied:
>>>
>>>> On Feb 21, 4:47 am, "$Zero" <zeroi...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> then you'd have $40 billion dollars.
>>>>> so what would you do then?
>>>> If I was Bill Gates, I'd take half of it and start a foundation
>>>> charged with eliminating some of the scourges of mankind, like
>>>> tuberculosis and malaria. I'd fund research into developing orphan
>>>> drugs for third world diseases.
>>> Orphan drugs?
>> That's what they're called, you stupid fuck.
>
> No kidding, Hope. Do you agree that they should be produced willy
> nilly for "third world" people without proper testing? These kinds
> of drugs are allowed to bypass some of the testing and trials that
> make drugs safe for you. Oh, wait. You live in Belgium, a third
> world, er, third rate, country.
For those curious about what orphan drugs are:
<http://www.fda.gov/consumer/updates/oda020808.html>
Pafuramidine maleate, an orphan drug for the prevention of malaria.
Malaria kills more than a million people a year, most of whom are
African. 1 in 5 African children die of malaria.
<http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/558340>
Pafuramidine can also be used for the treatment of human African
trypanosomiasis (African sleeping sickness). Estimated 50K-70K people in
sub-Saharan Africa currently infected.
<http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/563157>
SQ109 (Sequella, Inc) for the treatment of tuberculosis (TB)
<http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/565674>
Like that ...
gekko
frase:
> On Feb 20, 10:14 pm, "$Zero" <zeroi...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> if you had a billion dollars...
>>
>> what would you do?
>
> I'd buy a Congressman.
But not a *real* Congressman; that's cruel.
--
gekko
I got a fortune cookie that said "You like Chinese food."
$Zero
> Bill Penrose <penr...@iit.edu> fingre fremf�rte f�lgende forn�yelige
> frase:
>
> > On Feb 20, 10:14 pm, "$Zero" <zeroi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> if you had a billion dollars...
>
> >> what would you do?
>
> > I'd buy a Congressman.
>
> But not a *real* Congressman; that's cruel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSnLL6XbqH4
-$Zero...
the medium is the message -- NY Times McCain article
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.writing/msg/ca9fd395707d51c2
Bill Penrose
> Look, the FDA allows for smaller, shorter clinical trials with no
> requirement for a double blind just to fast track these drugs.
You're confusing two distinct ventures here.
One is the outsourcing of clinical trials to third world countries,
where they can fiddle with the numbers and not have to worry about
lawsuits from 'volunteers' who happen to get on the wrong end of the
percentages.
The other is developing drugs for diseases that only affect people who
can't afford to pay for the medications. If you have a drug that cures
river blindness but causes 1 patient in 500 to grow an extra arm,
folks will still flock to take it, and won't give a crap about the
risks.
In the US and maybe Australia, the rules are so strict that penicillin
and aspirin would never be approved in today's regulatory climate.
Whole law firms specialize in bringing class action suits against drug
makers who might make a very useful drug that causes adverse effects
in a tiny minority of people. There are roomfuls of excellent drugs
that will never be used because of the minute risk of side effects.
In fact, as of today, the trained monkeys in DC have relieved drug
companies of legal responsibility for adverse effects of drugs once
they've been approved by the FDA. This puts an even bigger regulatory
load on the agency.
I take 20 mg of simvastatin every day. It keeps my cholesterol, ratio,
and triglycerides under control. I'm aware that one person in 5000
that takes it will develop rhabdomyolysis that might kill them, but
it's a satisfactory risk. In return for a tiny risk of death by kidney
failure, I reduce my likelihood of heart disease by about half. Every
time I drive downtown, there's about a 1:1000 chance of getting killed
by an asshole running a light.
DB
$Zero
> $Zero wrote:
> > On Feb 21, 1:02�am, Pies de Arcilla <dearci...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > On Feb 21, 12:14�am, "$Zero" <zeroi...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > > if you had a billion dollars...
>
> > > > what would you do?
>
> > > > how would it change you and your life?
>
> > > > seriously.
>
> > > > think about it before answering.
>
> > > The quickest way to get rid of that much money would be to make a gift
> > > to reduce the national debt on my tax return. Hopefully it would
> > > astonish or piss off everyone.
>
> > including yourself, no doubt.
>
> I might keep a few million so I wouldn't have to work.
you might?
john.ku...@sympatico.ca
Well, first you have to count it to make sure its all there.
That would change your life because it take a long time to count to a
billion.
"The Big Lebowski" That film haunts me and I don't know why.
$Zero
i'd stop counting at about $50K.
then i'd hire people to count the rest.
of course, i'd only give them one box at a time.
(and i'd have them each count eachother's boxes as well)
when you're a billionaire, you have to think ahead.
> "The Big Lebowski" That film haunts me and I don't know why.
the dude abides.
-$Zero...
Change you can Xerox
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.writing/msg/680868518b9f0f4d
Pies de Arcilla
Bill Penrose wrote:
> On Feb 21, 9:47 am, Pies de Arcilla <dearci...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Paying down the national debt effectively divides that billion $
> > between everyone who has dollars and makes each one worth a little
> > more. So it's the easiest way to distribute the money widely.
>
> Politicians have a bottomless appetite for money. Did you read
> yesterday about some military guy whining because they don't have
> enough money for more and bigger weapons? How would you feel if they
> took your billion dollars and spent on some half-assed weapons system
> that might or might not work?
Dollars are fungible. So the only interpretation that makes sense to
me is that the money would go to _everyone_ in the proportion that
they have dollars. Saying that I would be giving it to the government
who would buy a billion-dollar weapons system is incorrect. The
military would effectively "get" a small proportion, maybe a couple
million. You would "get" your share. Every charity would "get" its
share.
Giving away money is just another way to exercise power, if you choose
who to give it to. Power corrupts and is easy to exercise wrongly.
Paying off the debt is the one way I thought of to avoid making a
choice about who is deserving.
Pies de Arcilla
Bill Penrose wrote:
> Why not buy better armor for our soldiers? Why not grants to wounded
> soldiers so they wouldn't have to wait for months for VA services?
> Help for returning soldiers who've been declared to have a pre-
> existing condition when they come home with PTSD?
>
> How about funding a Constitutional Amendment to prevent wingnuts from
> meddling with the Constitution?
I'd rather have everybody hate me wrongly than some people hate me
rightly and some love me wrongly.
Anything that you can think of to do good requires taking resources
from other possible ways to do good. So I would refuse to choose if I
had the power. There's no way to avoid being corrupted by power except
to give it up and *not* exercise it in the act of giving it up.
If you spend a million dollars on anything, it doesn't matter how
beneficial that thing is, you can be blamed for anyone who died for
lack of something a million or less would buy.
boots
>
>
>Bill Penrose wrote:
>> Why not buy better armor for our soldiers? Why not grants to wounded
>> soldiers so they wouldn't have to wait for months for VA services?
>> Help for returning soldiers who've been declared to have a pre-
>> existing condition when they come home with PTSD?
>>
>> How about funding a Constitutional Amendment to prevent wingnuts from
>> meddling with the Constitution?
>
>I'd rather have everybody hate me wrongly than some people hate me
>rightly and some love me wrongly.
Fear of being misunderstood?
>Anything that you can think of to do good requires taking resources
>from other possible ways to do good.
What about just doing good? Doing good doesn't necessarily require
resources beyond willingness.
> So I would refuse to choose if I had the power.
Closet politician?
> There's no way to avoid being corrupted by power except
>to give it up and *not* exercise it in the act of giving it up.
You might just let it sit there unused until a time when events made
it clear that it could be put to good purpose.
>If you spend a million dollars on anything, it doesn't matter how
>beneficial that thing is, you can be blamed for anyone who died for
>lack of something a million or less would buy.
If they can't take a joke, fuck 'em; there have doubtless been people
who couldn't make a decision to save their own lives, and didn't.
--
just write it
Alan Hope
>No kidding, Hope. Do you agree <SLAP!>
Don't go getting the idea you're allowed to discuss with me, cunt.
--
AH
http://grapes2dot0.blogspot.com
Ray Haddad
and Alan Hope <usenet....@gmail.com> instead replied:
>Ray Haddad goes:
>
>>No kidding, Hope. Do you agree <SLAP!>
>
>Don't go getting the idea you're allowed to discuss with me, cunt.
I don't have to ask. You beg.
--
Ray
Pies de Arcilla
> >Anything that you can think of to do good requires taking resources
> >from other possible ways to do good.
>
> What about just doing good? Doing good doesn't necessarily require
> resources beyond willingness.
Yes it _does_. It requires competence and hard work.
boots
It is sometimes sufficient to refrain from obstructing.
--
just write it
Sylvia
> On Feb 21, 3:40 pm, Ray Haddad <rhad...@iexpress.net.au> wrote:
> > Why not kill a few third world kids or some disease ridden African
> > just to appear kind to the rest that you don't kill. After all, it's
> > giving them the drugs in front of the media that counts not the
> > agonizing death later when they fail their real world trials.
.
> What the fuck are you talking about? Something real, or some wingnut
> figment?
>
> I have a physician friend who is a friend of a WHO official operating
> in Africa. Some of her stories would make your nuts pull in all the
> way to your diaphragm.
<...>
<stunned>
Haddad wears a diaphragm?
--
Sylvia
Stan (the Man)
If only his mother did . . .
--
Stan
Boggles The Brain
>
> - Show quoted text -
Interesting.