I request a part of Liability Salvage special compensation be paid me today

There are four elements must exist in order to get the salvage award:
(i) there should be recognized subject matter;

Duh, Oil Spill in the Gulf

(ii) the subject of the salvage must be in danger at sea;
Duh

(iii) the salvor must be volunteers; and
Having spent over 100 hours of my time and out of pocket expenses to do this on my own initiative I that that qualitifies.
Yes, I even have witnesses and documentation to back that up.

(iv) the service must be successful.
Element (i) recognized subject matter
Traditionally, salvage only recognizes as a ship or craft, cargo on board, freight payable and bunkers carried on board as the subject of property in danger. The concept of property has been expanded by the 1989 Salvage Convention.
The Convention recognizes saving life as an independent subject of salvage but the protection of the environment is the subject of salvage. Oil pollution can cause damage to the environment. If the salvor had prevented oil pollution from happening, he indeed performed a valuable service to the community as mentioned by (1997) 1 Lloyd’s Rep 323 (HL), pp 326–28. Therefore, the salvor will be rewarded with special compensation, i.e. ‘liability salvage’ instead of ‘property salvage’.
Element (ii) real danger

Well, iv is not proven yet, but a solid argument on the research data I have make a good case for success along with the people I spoke with. I think that a portion of the special liability salvage compensation is due now so that this can be shown to be the case with prototype simulations and real-physics modelling.

which costs money, so that should get paid for. What’s fair? I dunno.
Let’s just talk about today August 2nd, 2010. I would like $50,000 for work to date done at my time and out of pocket expense.

http://www.cawidgetwerx.com/~info

is proof.

Payable today please.
$20K goes to hire some employees and pay their benefits.
$30K is split equally among my partners by written agreement and so $10K goes to each partner.

Of my $10k, I choose to buy $5000 in stock in one corporation and spend the remaining $5,000 on capital equipment to take this to the next step.

The 12 track HiFi Vinyl Limited ed

recorded mostly on vintage analog gear a limited edition vinyl release of which 23 will be extra special. These will come with

Anyerism! an original play dedicated to a friend

Anyerism!

Featuring a representive gathering of all Mythical Entities in the
collective human psyche to once and forever resolve the Catholic /
Protestant problem of which all agree is a collective responsibility
they all have been slacking on.

Dedications
This play, whatever final forms it manifests, is a tardy graduation
present to Ms Vicki H, for her 20 Calations reunion. “I didn’t know
you until very recently” being the extenuating circumstances for it’s
tardy (still better than n ever) presentation. Ms Vicki is also
credited for re- awkening childhood memories that I actually did
theater at a fairly early age such I forgot about those experiences
and only with those flashbacks could I realize this was meant to be a
play. The Titanic sequence was also her inspiration.

Dramatis Personna
1. Guy – having a near death experience where his head is used as a
venue for a gathering of mythical beings during an anyerism surgery.
This is adrogynous role and could even be a male female dual role ( 2
actors).

2. Medical Droid – to perform operation and narrarate some required
info to connect audience to situation. Ian Banks Culture type droid.

3. Trinity of Mythical Entities – first approach and ask guy for
permission to. Rent his head for the gathering.

4. Mythical Entities gathered to resolve the Catholic Protestant
issue. These are composites of characters found in kids stories from
all different cultures: talking animals with magic powers mostly.

5. Goat – propses Buddhism solution
6. Pisces – seconds the motion
7. Speaker for group – warns about getting involved. An elephant in
many morphing transmogs but flashing to a recurring blind men
(attempting describing an elephant based on what part they are
touching) to show how everyone can be correct in a sense despite
contrary language. An elephant is like a tree the one touching the
leg exclaims, no a wall says the one holding a side. A snake says one
holding tail. One blind man stuck his hand in dung and remarks ”
Odd I’d have to say an elephant is kinda soft and mushy the way it
feels to me.

Act I – the venue is chosen

Opening on a crowded transit terminal broken by the shout “anyerism!
Everyone stand aside”. The crowd parts to reveal a medical ‘droid
zooming in to assist someone having a brain anyerism along with
narraration describing the medical procedure (used today). Droid does
a soliloquy that equates to searching it’s memory banks for all data
relating
“the main problem is the blood pressure which makes plugging a hole in
delicate capillaries in your brain a tad difficult; and standard
procedure solves this problem by rendering the patient clinically dead
for 10 minutes so no bloodflow will take place. The anyerism is sealed
and fixed and patient is revived via CPR”

The droid tells the guy this is your only option over a fatal brain
hemmorage and need your permission to go ahead – and the guy says go
for it. What else is one to do under the circumstances?

The droid preps and begins the standstill operation which involves
cooling body temp and inducing cardiac arrest to stop bloodflow. (I
can go into the gory details if it helps). TMI droid…

Fade to black – almost the guy is lying clinically dead while droid is
sealing anyerism.

Before total fade, up come 3 lights which are a trinity of Mythical
Entities making guy an offer. Since he’s clinically dead they want to
rent his head to hold their gathering and as age old tradition offer
guy that in return (for the use of his head) they grant his full
recovery and to recall the experience if desired or have it permanent
wiped before he regains consciousness. Of course he says yes: “so
this means I recover and go on as if nothing happened?”
“only with the memory of what happens with us, which you are free to
do with as you choose including the option to have it wiped for good”
Do I need to think that over?
Dude! no fine print is there?
Deal!

Venue is decided. AThe guys head while clinically dead during an
anyerism surgery.

Act ii – the gathering begins

And light changes to reveal each Mythical Entity present and
introduces self to the group. They all thank the guy for allowing the
group to use his head while he is having a Near Death E xperience as
such is the only way these matters can be done – one of those
conditions for tangible manifestation on this plane ya know…
The elephant is obviously chosen speaker for the group and is used to
convey additional explanations to the audience as need be.

The problem is presented as one Entity recalls an Irishmsn’s
definition of (paraphrase of a real quote) “Ireland = 200 sq miles
inhabited by two groups of people who speak the same language,
worship essentially the same god whose command is “thou shalt not
kill” and use the fact they have different names for minor bits as an
excuse to blow each others brains out whenever convenient; and commit
any other atrocity desired against the other group of people.”

All Mythical Entities agree to fix the problem and admit they should
have done it long ago but tWas an unexpected difficulty and so we all
procrastinated until everyone decided time to fix it is long overdue….

A few more stories are told and a few QA dialogs held (as needed.)

Bottom line – No one has an answer.

From way in the back the Goat ( Chinese astrology and Capricorn of
the Zodiac morph ) says:

Why not secretly convert both sides to Buddhism, because it is silly
to argue about the differences between Catholic and Protestant
Buddhism. They just won’t be aware they converted but must of own
free will do so. Since True Nirvana only occurs at the moment of
enlightenment of ALL sentient beings it sorta makes infighting a no-no
by default does it not?

Light moves around the gathering of Entities to catch each reaction
while some whisper to one another in the background. All have s
bewildered expression “you have an interesting point but some piece is
missing”

Consensus; spoken by the Elephant in magistrate robes explains ” Goat,
that makes too much sense, it’ll never work…”

Except Pisces ( two fish connected in the middle swimming on opposed
directions, that Zodiac symbol ) who says:
Hey that’s brilliant! I second the motion!

Elephant explains now it’s been seconded we move to discussion.

Act iii debate and discussion

This act can be long or short as works best as the Entities debate how
such might transpire. Involve soliloquy and dialog between Entities.

But concludes with guy whose head is being rented saying to the effect:
Hey,
I studied Buddhism in college the key is novalist Hermann Hesse.

Act final
All entities look at guy who is in some disembodied representation and
say in unison “could you please elaborate on what you just said”

Guy explains by events in Hesse’s life and quoting his works the only
bridge between Buddhism and the Western mindset is through Hesse. The
only way you can secretly convert both sides to Buddhism by free will
is through some popular rendition of his works…

Elephant now dressed in a clerk outfit warns guy:
We value your input but going further means you are now involved; this
is the point of no return are you sure you wish to procede?

Guy says Jack Dawson became involved the moment Rose ran past him;
intent on jumping off the stern of RMS Titanic – in the film anyhow,
alright so I’m involved – it is my head we are all using for this
gathering of course I’m involved.

We mean it can no longer be wiped from your memory should you choose
that option…

Did Mr Dawson request a memory wipe or did he just ‘go for it’ when
opportunity knocked?

Flash in those scenes from Titanic either re-enactment or film clips
displayed in some way the audience can grasp.

Sudden jolt as the defibrulator is applied in reality. Every entity –
“shit they have been getting much faster lately.”

Guy ” what? It’s over? No I don’t want to go this is a really cool
dream”

Entities start to fade as guy is brought back to consciousness – final
unison of all Entities ” ‘go for it’ we will help anytime we are
able”. Entities all fade away waving goodbye.

Fade to near black the bright lights instant on patient waking up
uninjured and healed thinking outloud while gently pushing away
medical droid who is fussing over him “My that WAS an interesting
experience – first thing I need to do is start a rock band” 🙂
Then “Steppenwolf got taken we will need a new name…”
=)

The End

US/China co-invented musical instrument

Named the “Mic Violin:” by my co-inventor student in china and her friend to show her understanding of homonyms (my name being Mike and the 2 string Chinese violin is mic’d to plug into effects units and amplifiers). A more accurate description of the instrument being an electric low string tremelo Erhu.

http://www.youtube.com/user/mikefxlee#p/a/u/2/mLJo8-NK8Yo

Net profits to be divided as follows, 1/6 and 1/6 to each Student. !/6 to myself, 1/6 my UK partner, and 1/6 my Australian Partner, 1/6 to help fund music programs in K-12.

In other words my 1/2 ownership is being split equally according to contract with the UK and Australia thus the 1/6.

I swear under all applicable statues and on my mother’s grave the above is true. Furthermore I release all other parties from any liability and bear that responsibility of my own free will.

Another Service offering: Professional Nuisance – or which wheel gets the grease

There is an old saying “the squeaky wheel gets the grease”.
To set that in a modern context; make a big and loud ruckus to annoy enough people and – I suppose provided it is done under the term “civil disobedience” is a socially acceptable phenomena. And I point out that disturbing the peace to educate people someone’s civil rights are being violated is perfectly ethical in my book.

Who else can make a sufficient nuisance than musicians…

I would offer this service using a hypothetical example as follows:

1. The client is someone who legally is in the right yet the practical redress due has not manifest after a reasonable waiting period. That is a de jure but not de facto victory.
2. That party which is rightfully due some compensation for being wronged having gone through the standard procedures to no avail is likely to be sick of the matter by this point and to have some musicians make a loud noise as well as get the real story to their fans would be the fastest way to have some action transpire.
3. So, a professional nuisance is brought in to create a well produced fuss which should
A. Be received by the public in a positive view.
B. Make the ‘bad guy’ look bad which is the truth
C. Have the compensation due paid to the wronged.
D. The public benefits by being educated on their rights and responsibility
E. The bad guy is reprimanded publicly and that behavior is seen in a negative light.

Pricing: some percent of the lawsuit settlement, fair, because the real value is in making a huge mess and fuss and noise to protect someone’s rights.

Marijuana can’t be made illegal, US Constitution Article I, Section 9.3

IMHO, only the creativity and imagination of an Artist could figure this out…

This is not an Amendment, it is the first Article of the U.S. Constitution dealing with the legislature.

“9.3 No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed.”

An ex post facto law is retroactive and the Supreme Court determined these clauses prohibit retroactive laws in the field of criminal law.
While references are not explicit, there is good evidence to show the stuff was smoked since the founding of the USA.

What part of NO and SHALL BE PASSED do you have a problem understanding? Especially considering the source.
I guess you really cannot argue with that can you?

And just to be clear, there was a debate during the first Constitutional Convention whether to include this 9.3 clause; not because there was disagreement over principle – but whether future generations would have the sense to extrapolate this from the rest of Article I and therefore it was argued that this 9.3 was redundant and need not be included.

I find the most eloquent statement (I believe Randolph, I’m paraphrasing) is

Congress shall use common sense, that is they shall not cause to be a crime that which is no crime.

(that might be pretty close the the actual quote spoken back in 1788 or so)

Let’s just add some extra stuff for the “halibut”…

Two of the first guiding principles given to the delegates before they even started:
1. Government should be flexible to time and events.
2. Use simple and precise language for basic principles only.

Therefore there should be some volunteer (unpaid) and properly appointed board to deal with the bureaucracy and red tape inefficiency issues. I think use the Americans with Disabilities Act to force them to do their own paperwork; and eventually the point should get through.

Given the historical events surrounding the writing of this document, the foundation of our system of government; it’s not cool to violate the spirit (Including but not limited to the letter) of the US Constitution. Without that we’d be a bunch of small constantly warring states… Think China around 500 BC.

Three Kingdoms Era

The Rock Band as Tax Shelter Service Provider

One of the Best Tax Shelters in America is a sideline business you actively manage, which gets around the tax reform prohibiting taxpayers from offsetting their salary and investment income with losses from passive investments.

Active management (i.e., participatory) of sideline business lets you claim tax losses for

depreciation on cars
equipment
real estate

even while the business is earning a cash-flow profit.

Precedent:

Bernard Wagner, an accountant, fancied himself a songwriter and music promoter. He hired a band, rehearsed it, booked it, and copyrighted the songs he wrote. Although his chances of success were slight, he intended to succeed, so the Tax Court let him deduct his costs and losses.”
Source: Bernard Wagner, TC Memo 1983-606

The requirement for qualification as a business is operation with objective of making a profit, you don’t have to make nor expect to make any in the near future. (And it may be a good idea to file IRS Form 5213, Election to Postpone Determination that Activity is for Profit, merely to prove you are serious).

As far as a rock band goes, it almost goes without saying such is the case – think of the lyrics to “Rock and Roll Lifestyle” by Cake
Everyone wants to be a Rock Star (Nickelback).

The key here is to keep accurate documentation.

So, let’s see what we can get away with legally (where we can go with it.)
The assumption is you have a regular job and are not a band musician.

1. BOOZE (bar tab)
Bands play in bars, for money. If you go to the bar and bring your friends, pay for dinner and rounds of drinks – 80% of that cost is deductible as a business and entertainment expense. By bringing your friends you are promoting the band, with the intent that if they like the music they will tell their friends and have a positive impact on revenue.

The bigger crowd a band draws, the more money it gets and greater likelihood of future shows. This actually might work. There tends to be a 2 drink minimum policy by default.

So, the important thing is the documentation and making it idiot proof. You know those prepaid gift cards? Some you can put your own image or logo on? And they keep transaction records. Match the with gig dates and location with transactions and that should be adequate. I should imagine you can deduct the Taxi ride home because you are too intoxicated to drive safely. Meaning you take a taxi there in the first place and deduct the round trip.

Remember 80% limit on these deductions. Still, we are talking money you earn from your job, you go out to the bar to see the band, blow a wad on liquor, and deduct 80% as a sideline business expense. And the taxi, don’t forget – no drunk driving.

I guess I will define the Service offered by the band. Let’s use the above example.

You purchase the gift cards, that transaction is recorded as an investment (they will have the band logo on them).
All transaction records are kept by 3rd party.
Band gigs and other activity records are kept.
There is a small service fee involved that helps pay band expenses (Come on you are receive a tax deduction for bar tabs in return…)
At the right time or on request you get a fully itemized and documented receipt correlating your purchases with band activity.

And the Value Add (for additional service fee)
The itemized receipt is run past an accountant and comes to you with full instructions on how to deduct and how much.

The BIG Value Add – personal consulting
The Band will work with you to deduct vacations, entertainment, cars, real-estate, etc.
Things you normally would take a loss on because there is no provision to deduct it. Creativity and imagination to the rescue. We shall find a way to make it deductible.

We should start today to prepare for the worst

Hope for the best of course; but prepare for the worst. Is this not what might be termed wise?

Stormy week wasn’t it.
1. Sandstorm near Sydney, Australia
2. Huge one in the Philippines
3. Earthquake in Samoa

I add my 2 cents. I never had allergies in SF before until this year and last week was bad as a typical day in Michigan (part reason why I moved). So, what’s up with all this. I do not have the talent to run a planetary ecology simulation in my head, not close. I don’t know. But so what? People talk, listen to what they say. There is direct talk about this being some effect of our making. Everywhere, I was surprised.

So, let us forget about the arguments against and assume it’s all going downhill fast. What do we need to do as a global civilization to prepare our peoples in the event of any situation. Boils down to three items:

1. Plan- for the worst case: individual communities are on their own and no hope for external help/rescue
2. Prepare – supplies, infrastructure, services, interim leadership, communications, everything.
3. Educate – the public what to do in case of, reassure them these preparations are in effect and how to access them

And, let us be smart and turn this into a global business opportunity to fix the economy while we are at it.

Demand? Yes, big time if you consider what worst case might be:

Comet spirals and collides with the planet eradicating 99% of civilization in one fell swoop. What is left?
Isolated communities that survive this disaster on their own.

Each community must be able to
1. generate power, produce heat, and clean water indefinitely
2. grow, hunt, or gather food indefinitely
3. provide medical, government, and education services indefinitely
4. rebuild civilization or get swept away forever

Holy Shit! That’s a tall order, so we better get moving don’t you think? Assume pockets of each culture will survive so everyone is fairly represented. That’s a good reason for us to drop our petty differences and deal with the pressing matter at hand. Hello STORMY WEEK WASN’T IT?

What did I do? I dropped everything and started THIS No it’s not much, but it’s action, a start, and something to go on. You know the bit about if you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem? I’ve been such a pain in the ass most of my life I decided to be part of the solution this time.

I’m very tired too. I wanted to learn the Hungarian Gypsy scale and smoke pot. I didn’t really want to do this extra work you know.

Idea. Let’s all put our heads together and make it work for everyone’s benefit. Is it possible. Definitely. Called a Group Consensual Serendipity.

Take the economic situation. Let’s isolate each regions needs and what they can deliver – which can be know-how, advice, technology, food, or anything it is not important. Make a list.

Now do the same with all the other problems we are facing. Education, healthcare, Diplomacy, everything.
Define each as a regions’ needs and deliverables.

When you do it for the world, you’d be surprised how every region can deliver something useful, get its needs met and solve problems at the same time. Analogy, a little thing called the ecosystem, which works in practice so we being smart can get this idea to work too.

Put it in economic terms – profit margins, assets and liabilities. Better yet – joint ventures, partnerships, and alliances. Analogy, remember the food chain? It’s a cycle where the big fish die and become food for bacteria? Yes, that part. Same concept here.

Helping all artists survive in these changing times

What does this have to do with a band? Well that’s a lot of people to reach isn’t it – the entire population of the planet. How, exactly do you suppose you are going to reach that many diverse people quickly and en masse?

Start with that bit, there’s more.

The Maginot Line, Shanghai dialect, Bugs Bunny and Me.

My name is Michael C. Lee, definitely not a millionaire nor owner of either mansion or yacht. I do own a company called cawidgetwerx, a guitar, and some computer stuff. But I am a jazz trained musician and improvisation is second nature.

What do these all have in common? It’s a long story. I guess I’ll start with me. I am a first generation Chinese American, a native English speaker, and Jazz musician among other things. My father was born in Canton, China, my mother in Shanghai, China. Both were native speakers of their local dialects and ESL speakers. The Chinese language to me is a mix of different phrases I learned as a kid which consists of both Mandarin and Cantonese and both pronounced badly with a Shanghai accent. While I know it is a written language I have no concept how to express what bits I can semi articulate in any written form; traditional or ASCII (pinyin). My phonetic ability is so poor to begin with it takes several tries to get an idea across. Never would I have thought to be in a situation like last night – which was texting a friend in China on Skype and limited to text only.

Now there is a proper way to express the language in ASCII called pinyin and I have no clue how it works. Nor do I know the traditional written form save for a few symbols like horse. The first paragraph describes a pretty complex situation and I had to explain exactly that concept using only text chat and no accents or other emphasis items you get with a spoken conversation. That’s difficult.

Naturally I fell back to my jazz training and improvised. It worked like a charm. No, that’s not correct. It was still really difficult but I succeeded in the end.

The Shanghai dialect is a weird item. It is classified as a completely separate language having only two intonations rather than four as is the case with Mandarin and Cantonese. But, that’s my accent, and I was a 5 year old kid getting around in that city alone just fine using it.

I wonder who knows what the Maginot Line is?
It was a fortification system build in the 1930s in France. My mother knew about it and I learned of it through her. She never pronounced it correctly – she said it with a two tone Shanghai accent which places the emphasis on the exact wrong syllables than the correct English would, and I learned it the same way. Later in life I learned the correct way to say the name. What this means is I have no clue how to turn any of the pidgin spoken phrases in cantonese or mandarin (with the Shanghai accent no less) into an english word that anyone else could make sense of.

Enter Bugs Bunny. I watched a lot of cartoons as a kid and now. Bugs Bunny is my favorite because he gets away with causing loads of trouble and looking like a saint. In Jungian terms, Bugs is the Trickster Archetype which in Chinese folk stories is embodied by the Monkey character in A Journey to the West

Monkey is much admired for being clever and I felt the same about Bugs as I knew both stories from early childhood on. Is this starting to sound insane? Perhaps you shouldn’t be reading it then. I have no desire to ruin anyone’s peace of mind after all.

Pause and think.

Read the Journey to the West link at wikipedia. Hey cool, there are Chinese traditional written characters in that article that copy and paste into Skype!

Bingo.

the superhero band show thing

Is based a lot on This Sci Fi Society created by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks and involves a spaceship bigger than this planet with at least 1000 years past our technology from the Culture deciding to go rogue because it wants to see what running Special Circumstances with musicians on a primitive world will turn out.

This Eccentric GSV “Disambiguation of Festive Moments” and it essentially pays musicians to play superhero in real life. Giving a lot of advanced tech to help out with super powers and in dire need can be called on to “alter the nature of reality” by a few covers and originals it happens to be in the mood for at the moment.

That pretty much explains the superhero role, the powers and tech, and opens a big door for episodes and plots and such.

Idea is to mix animation with real footage, shoot around different locations.

The Gigawatt phonon “laser” will be animated, the rock climbing R/C truck with an amp and two way audio video will be real and used to shoot some footage remotely.
this truck