David Bruce Has Done His Taxes March 31, 2005March 1, 2017 Meanwhile, the Saudi Royal family continues to make an extra $250 million or so A DAY from today’s higher oil prices. That’s extra, beyond what they were making before the price of oil shot up from $25 or $30. (Just thought I should remind you what a grand time this has been for Bandar Bush, as he’s known – the Saudi Prince who’s virtually a brother to our President – and for the oil crowd generally.) And now . . . DON’T LET OEDIPUS ANYWHERE NEAR MY FEEDING TUBE Richard Vroman: ‘In California there is a place to specify who may not in any circumstance have input into health care and end-of-life decisions. This could be very useful for those who anticipate that there might be a fight. If such clauses are available in other states, they could prevent a lot of problems.’ DAVID BRUCE HAS DONE HIS TAXES David Bruce: ‘Last year, it became apparent that some of your readers don’t realize that people making incomes in the $30,000-range pay income taxes. In 2004, I made $34,269.51. I paid $2,571 in federal income tax and $386 in Self-Employment Tax. I paid $726 in state income taxes. I paid $565.46 in local income taxes. I take the standard deduction, and I am in the State Teachers Retirement Program in Ohio. Frankly, I don’t mind paying my fair share of taxes. To me, taxes are the price that we pay for civilization. Of course, I would like the money spent responsibility, and I believe that it is spent more responsibly when we have Democratic leadership.’ APPLE ALERT James Jensen: ‘The bags of ‘Gala’ Michigan apples you bought could really come from Michigan in March. Nitrogen-rich refrigerated warehouses allow last year’s harvest to stay fresh for months.’ ☞ Next you’ll be telling me dinosaur bone marrow can be preserved for 70 million years. YOUR WEIGHT BEFORE AND AFTER EATING THAT APPLE Judy: ‘You SAY you’ll never speak of this again, but you KNOW you’re going to get some physicist telling you why a man weighs more or less when he does or doesn’t….etc….and it will go on and on until you start eating avocadoes.’ ☞ You cut me to the core. John Ebert: ‘I agree the guy and the apple weigh the same before and immediately after eating. But the digestive process is a bunch of chemical reactions, with food molecules combining with oxygen molecules and so on. Some products of those reactions add to the body and some are waste products. In turn, the waste products are either stored for later excretion or exhaled in breathing. So after ingestion but before excretion we have a “closed system” – except for respiration. Any change in weight would depend on the difference between the weight of air inhaled and the weight of air exhaled. Since a CO2 molecule exhaled weighs more than an O2 molecule inhaled, we’d expect there to be a gradual weight loss – unless there are more O2 molecules inhaled than CO2 molecules exhaled. (More precisely, unless the ratio of O2 molecules inhaled to CO2 molecules exhaled exceeds about 1.375).’ ☞ Didn’t Einstein say that weight loss was 2% respiration and 98% perspiration? I thought I weighed gradually less because I was evaporating. OK, not another word about this.