Free Republic

OAKLAND, Calif., August 30, 2010—The Congressional Budget Office expects our national debt to surpass $23 trillion by 2019. In fiscal year 2010 alone, federal spending will reach $3.5 trillion. The numbers are unprecedented and yet the experts are not optimistic that we will reestablish economic solvency any time soon. So what does this mean for you? To personalize the impact of these figures, the Independent Institute will launch a Government Cost Calculator at MyGovCost.org on August 31, a new web site directed by economist and Research Fellow Emily Skarbek. “The growth in federal budget expenditures and spending initiatives is increasingly...

A new web site claims to give the odds on you dying next year, or for whatever period you select, based on a few simple questions. The site, DeathRiskRankings.com, is the brainchild of researchers and students at Carnegie Mellon University. It provides answers based on publicly available data from the United States and Europe, comparing mortality risks by gender, age, cause of death and geographic region. Put your info in, and it produces the probable causes of your demise and provides insight on the timing of that unfortunate event. The site can compare such things as the odds of death...

My HP-48SX ceased functioning about 5 years ago and i still miss it. I recently got the bug to go out and replace it with something. I saw an HP-50 on sale today for about 60 bucks. I bought the 48-SX when they first came out(circa 1989?) for A LOT OF MONEY. I forget the exact amount, but it was either $199.99 or $299.99. I think it was the latter. The only thing wrong with my 48 is the on/off button. I know this because the problem started out minor and gradually got worse. I used to be able to...

From NBC's Mark Murray The Obama campaign's latest TV ad highlights its online tax calculator to make the case that Obama's tax plan gives middle-class Americans a larger tax cut than McCain's does.

This is a cool little site where you can prove Obama is a liar on taxes. Just plug in your income and the year 2008, then try it for 2000, to compare how much higher they will be after the Bush tax cuts are repealed. You'll be shocked how "patriotic" your increase will be.

“The calculator asks you to input the value of your 401(k). Then, it recalculates what your 401(k) will be worth under four different tax scenarios”

Medieval calculator up for grabsUK museum seeks cash to keep a rare astrolabe in public hands. Philip Ball The British Museum needs £350,000 to secure this astrolabe. The fate of a fourteenth-century pocket calculator is hanging in the balance between museum ownership and private sale. The device is a brass astrolabe quadrant that opens a new window on the mathematical and astronomical literacy of the Middle Ages, experts say. It can tell the time from the position of the Sun, calculate the heights of tall objects, and work out the date of Easter. Found in 2005, the instrument has captivated...

I was wandering the Web and came across this.....anyone else seen this? Can anyone debunk or certify it as correct? http://democrats.senate.gov/ss/calc.html Try it out.....you put in your salary, and then it calculates what you'd get under the President's Plan.

RICHMOND -- Texas Instruments is replacing 160,000 school calculators in Virginia after an observant sixth-grader discovered a function that would have given students an unfair advantage on standardized tests. The state's education department asked Texas Instruments two years ago to disable the function that converts decimals to fractions because students are required to know how to do that with paper and pencil on statewide tests. But in January, Dakota Brown, 12, a student at Carver Middle School in Chesterfield County, figured out that by pressing two other keys on his approved TI-30 Xa SE VA, he could change decimals into...

Sen. Reid, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), and other foes of personal retirement accounts today posted an on-line calculator developed by the far-left Center for Budget Policy and Priorities. Those planning to use this calculator should keep in mind a few of the unsupportable assumptions built into it:

Weapons Of Math Instruction Intercepted At New York Airport My conservative (I thought) friend K-Squared sent this to my daughter without telling me anything about it. Being the major fan of President Bush that she is, naturally my daughter had to make sure I saw it. Teacher arrested At New York's Kennedy airport today, an individual later discovered to be a public school teacher was arrested trying to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a set square, a slide rule, and a calculator. At a morning press conference, the U.S. attorney general said he believes...

Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Jerry Ross, along with about 200 other Purdue University alumni, have added their slide rules to a new exhibit at their alma mater that testifies to the past mathematical prowess of these computational devices. The permanent display, on the first floor of the university’s Potter Engineering Center, houses the pre-digital analytical marvels, some of which were made in the 19th century and range in length from a few inches to seven feet. "There was a point in time when the slide rule was king," said James Alleman, a professor of civil engineering who began collecting the...