Robert Scott

[Martyupnorth®- Unacceptable Fact Checker @Martyupnorth]

Love that sound. This is a V10 being put through it's paces.

Classic Formula 1 V10 engines (used primarily between 1989 and 2005) rotated at blistering speeds of 18,000 to over 21,000 RPM. This translates to the crankshaft spinning 300 to 350 times every single second.

To sustain these speeds without literally tearing themselves apart, engineers utilized pneumatic valve systems. Instead of traditional metal valve springs, these engines used pressurized air to open and close the valves, ensuring up to 300 rapid movements per second without valve "float"

Around 2001, I was involved in a project with Sturman Industries, to try and develop a camless engine for the oil patch. I met Eddie Sturman, a crazy inventor who's brain never stopped thinking about ways to improve engines. We succeeded in making a cylinder head with digital valves that could be adjusted instantly to compensate for any fuel mixture. We had 12 cylinder engines running in 2 cycle, 4 cycle, and 6 cycle.

Eddie's wife would come around, and gently pull him away from his work, so he could go take a nap and re-energize his brain.

[AlphaFox @alphafox]

Remember, as a parent its your job to embarrass your teen:

[Lance Roberts @LanceRoberts]

Just remember...it is FAR BETTER to MISS the 10-WORST DAYS in the market than worrying about the 10-BEST DAYS.

[Gammitin (Ben) 💾 @Gammitin]

IBM OS/2 Warp ☺️

[Documenting Saylor @saylordocs]

Real Luxuries in Life

1. Living 10 minutes from work
2. Living 5 minutes from the gym
3. Having quiet neighbors
4. Having money left at the end of the month and investing it
5. Peace at home
6. Drinking coffee without rushing
7. Sleeping with a clear conscience
8. Laughing with people who truly get you
9. Traveling every year
10. Waking up naturally without an alarm
11. Enjoying a home-cooked meal with loved ones
12. Having time to read a book in one sitting
13. Finding joy in simple daily routines
14. Having a pet that greets you happily at the door

These are the things that actually feel rich.

[Brave @brave]

Reminder that this Brave feature exists:

[Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) 🚢⚓🐪🚒🏴‍☠️ @mercoglianos]

Just a reminder of what happens when it snows in central North Carolina.

[NC Scout @Brushbeater]

NC stands ready to repel the Imperial AT-ATs.

[Natalie F Danelishen @Chesschick01]

Me filing my taxes next year:

[Danielle DiMartino Booth @DiMartinoBooth]

Here with David, New York City’s best cab driver and FUTURE economist! He was watching me on YouTube in traffic and asked me if I was who I am. Next he will read my manifesto. AND I’ve inspired him to go back for his graduate degree.

MADE my Fed Day!

Happy holidays David!

[Anthea🌼🌷🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 @AntheaJayne4]

OMFG! 🤦🤦🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 (sound up 🔉🔊🔊)

[Tracy Shuchart (𝒞𝒽𝒾 ) @chigrl]

The Framers understood the distinction between direct and indirect taxation with precision. Article I, Section 9 explicitly requires direct taxes to be apportioned among states according to population.

Property taxes are unambiguously direct taxes - they're assessed on ownership itself, not on transactions or activities. Yet property taxes operate without apportionment, which should render them constitutionally void at the federal level and questionable even when delegated to states.

The 16th Amendment carved out an exception for income taxes specifically, but that exception does not extend to property taxation. The constitutional architecture treats direct taxation as dangerous enough to require strict apportionment rules, yet property taxes bypass this safeguard entirely through state delegation.

More fundamentally, property taxes create a feudal relationship disguised as governance.

Under a true republic, citizens hold allodial title - absolute ownership free from superior claim.

The Fifth Amendment prohibits taking property without just compensation, yet property taxes effectively constitute partial takings every year. If the state claimed 1.5% of your land annually through eminent domain, that would clearly violate the Takings Clause. Property taxes achieve the same result through financial extraction rather than physical seizure. The annual obligation functions as permanent debt secured by your property, except you never borrowed the principal and cannot pay it off. This converts ownership into a rental agreement with the government as landlord.

The economic mechanism reveals the deeper violation. Property taxes create a wedge between productive use and bare ownership. A family farm generating modest income faces the same tax burden as commercial development generating high income on equivalent acreage. This penalizes long term holding and forces continuous monetization of property to service tax obligations. Retirees who paid off mortgages still face monthly tax bills or lose their homes. This is incompatible with the republic ideal of independent citizens free from permanent economic subordination to state authority.

The assessment process compounds the constitutional problem. Property taxes assume the state owns your land and graciously allows you to use it in exchange for annual rent, rather than treating citizens as sovereign owners and the state as a limited agent.

Framersof the republic feared concentrated power and permanent dependencies that would corrupt civic virtue. Property taxes create exactly this corruption by making every property owner a dependent of local government. School districts, municipalities, and counties gain incentive to inflate assessments and resist appeals because their budgets depend on tax revenue. This converts government from servant to creditor with the power to seize collateral. The structural incentives guarantee abuse because the assessor, the beneficiary, and the enforcement mechanism all represent the same entity. No private creditor would be allowed this arrangement, yet we accept it from government.

From an economic sovereignty perspective, property taxes effectively nationalize land while maintaining the fiction of private ownership. The state captures the rental yield through annual taxation while owners bear all maintenance costs, market risks, and liability. If tax rates exceed the property's income generating capacity, ownership becomes a net liability. This explains the abandoned properties in Detroit and other distressed cities. When taxes exceed economic value, rational owners walk away. The state has successfully converted ownership into a burden rather than an asset.

[Nature is Amazing ☘️ @AMAZlNGNATURE]

Dragonflies eating mosquitoes that come out of a sewage well.

The world needs more dragonflies!

[Adam Rossi @rossiadam]

I choose to do these projects not because they are easy, but because I thought they would be easy.

[Thomas Sowell Quotes @ThomasSowell]

"The Pencil" by Milton Friedman.

[Science girl @sciencegirl]

A tiny friend that came for a safe place to rest in the middle of the ocean

[Science girl @sciencegirl]

Cooling off in crystal clear waters

[Tracy Shuchart (𝒞𝒽𝒾 ) @chigrl]

Gentle reminder that CB's 2% target inflation rate is absolutely a made up number pulled out of thin air>

In fact, the 2% inflation target widely adopted by central banks originated from New Zealand in the late 1980s.

It was not the product of a precise academic study but came from an offhand comment during a 1988 television interview with New Zealand's finance minister, Roger Douglas, who said the ideal inflation rate should be between zero and 1 percent.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand then formalized a 2% target by accounting for an estimated upward bias in measured inflation, rounding up the desired target boundary to 2%.

This figure soon became accepted as standard among central banks globally, including the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, and eventually the US Federal Reserve, which officially adopted it only in 2012 under Chair Ben Bernanke.

[Wholesome Side of 𝕏 @itsme_urstruly]

Moving a photo in Microsoft Word... so true 🤣🤣