I think you would probably make a lot of sacrifices for 252 square feet. That's a square 15 feet on a side, smaller than a standard 2 car garage. My dad lived in a 40 foot motorhome (8 ft x 40 ft) and that's 320 square feet and it felt small when I stayed in it; plus, most everything was motorhome-sized (stove, toilet/bath, etc) and a lot of built-ins & storage efficiencies.

This guy says he has a wife and 3 kids -- I think it might take some religious type orientation to live in a cold climate with 5 people in 250 sq ft of space.

The most bare necessities like a toilet, sink, tub, bed, stove, fridge, table, chairs add up pretty quickly. I didn't dig around enough in his web site to see if there were inside pictures, but I'd be curious to see how its arranged.

My biggest beef is just that the poster was disingenuous -- "I built a stone house for $7k". What he built is smaller than most garages and approaches a large shed in actual size. I'm also skeptical $7k can actually cover building, furnishing and decorating even that small space completely. Maybe if he moved in existing appliances. Maybe if he built all his own case goods. Maybe if the finish materials are like prison-basic (just coating the slab with a gloss topcoat instead of tile or carpet), white paint on the walls, etc

I am GM of a nuclear power plan

And I am Jack's liver.

And there are more people who believe (terrestrial) solar energy will become economically viable but think castles in the skies of Venus are just that. Castles in the air.

To be fair, we have solar energy, getting more economical by leaps and bounds, while our rockets are still blowing up at launch.

High enough, the climate is nice.

This is the only reason people live in Canada. Because if you're high enough, you don't really care about the climate.

I always get a kick out of the fact that some of the same people who think solar energy will never be viable will embrace the idea of human colonies in the clouds over Venus or on Mars.

I love stories like this one, which are proven conclusively in the comments section under them.

Could not one of average intelligence yet above-average perseverance perform an experiment building on another's experiment and be called a "successful" scientist.

Maybe, but they still have to write it up and get it published, and that's where the above-average intelligence comes in. There are drones in science, like in every field, but they don't get "successful" without publishing. And often that means working with others, and working with others requires above-average intelligence.

Intelligence is of little concern and to be honest I'd like to know what defines intelligence.

If only there was some sort of reference that we could use to find such a definition...

"noun
1.
the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills."

or...

" A very general mental capability that, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience. It is not merely book learning, a narrow academic skill, or test-taking smarts. Rather, it reflects a broader and deeper capability for comprehending our surroundings—"catching on," "making sense" of things, or "figuring out" what to do.""

No matter how you define, it is most definitely not the same as "education". I'm not sure if you've ever gotten a PhD or been on PhD committees or been an adviser to PhD candidates, but "education" only gets you partway there (and not that big a part).

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll give it a try, but at her advanced age, my dog's favorite toy is a bed on which to take a nap. I could probably interest her in a tennis ball or treat, though.

Unless I'm drastically misinterpreting your quote, you are requiring them to do that:

No, my point was that paying hundreds of thousands of dollars is not the only way to get a medallion here. There's a lottery every year when they put new medallions into circulation. The winners get the medallions for just a nominal fee.

Now, regarding the special medallions, those are not the ones that are hundreds of thousands of dollars. They're much more readily available for the cost of a license, and after a certain period of serving the underserved locations of the city, there are ways to get the regular medallion. All of these new rules were put in place long after I was a weekend warrior cabdriver during grad school, so I don't know the exact details, just what I've had hacks tell me when I was in their cabs.

252 square feet is smaller than a lot of New York City apartments. A king size bed alone is 42 square feet.

I do agree that a lot of the "smart house" technology isn't very sustainable, and realtors I've talked to tend to say that it actually makes houses hard to sell.

I suspect, though, that some flavor of smart technology will become more normal at least with regards to electricity. I think improvements in battery capacity, reductions in net metering value and so on will get more people running from mixed power sources, whether it's grid, generators, solar, wind, etc, and an electrical system that understands its power source, available power, charge status, etc will become not unreasonable.

Interesting. How big is it? I didn't see any size estimates (nor did I spider the web site, either) but it looks pretty small -- 20 ft or less on the long side, maybe 10-15 on the short side, call it 300 sq ft. That's extremely small -- the standard size for a two car garage is 400 sq ft.

While it's impressive that you were able to produce an entire house for $7k, had you said "yeah, we build a stone house for $7k and it's only 300 square feet" it would have seemed more realistic.

It almost seems like you leave how small it is out of the "entire house for $7k" claim on purpose to make the brag seem more amazing.

The coup was a counter-coup. The Iranian PM was the one that overthrew the government, faked an election, dissolved parliament, was ruling by decree, and caused the Shah to flee.

That's not even close to true.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
http://partners.nytimes.com/li...
http://www.theguardian.com/wor...

The government of Iran had been overthrown by the Prime Minister who faked an election, dissolved parliament, and was ruling by decree while ignoring the Shah as constitutional monarch. (You know, the traditional head of government being responsible to head of state?) Not even Stalin faked elections as brazenly as the Iranian PM. The Shah fled for his own safety. The US and UK helped restore the Shah to power, not install him.

That is 100% false.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

http://partners.nytimes.com/li...

http://www.theguardian.com/wor...

And if it was society's resources paying for the gas and labor, then I would agree with you, but at the moment, you're requiring the cab drivers - who are typically lower-class - spend their own resources.

No, you're not requiring. Cities have lotteries for new taxi medallions every year where they are obtained for a very small registration fee. That's the only way new medallions come into the system.

And after all, isn't spending your own resources in order to start a business that will be profitable what capitalism is all about?