As reported by NBC Nightly News:
Gotta love the end when Brian Williams says “and we have no idea what it says about our society…”. Pure gold!
Dec 142008
Oct 302008
Is it just me or does every presidential debate sound the same? Almost like they have the catchphrases they want to drive home because they don't believe Average Joe can handle the complexities of an actual policy stance…
I guess it's not just me…Synchronized Presidential Debating
Oct 012008
Aug 142008
I just read this great article in Harper's magazine by Jonathan Rowe and wanted to pass it along. It's a great look at the perspective of “the economy” and how the term is often misused and the measure being contraindicative.
If you have a few minutes, I definitely recommend giving this a read:
May 302008
About a month ago, my wife sent me a link to CNBC's Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge, saying that she thought it would be something I'd be interested in. That probably came from my participation in ProTrade over the last year, which allows you to trade stock in athletes and teams based on their performance. Granted, it's nothing like the real stock market and is much more volatile (as can be seen by my 3600% portfolio growth since last April). I had tried making the transition to stock market games before, but it usually wasn't long before I lost interest.
Nonetheless, I decided to take up the challenge anyway. I figured that maybe with a few right moves, maybe I'd luck out and win the challenge.
A month later, I'm hooked. Plus, I've finally taken the time to do some of my homework and learned some of the key indicators for long-term stock performance (I just won't end up being a day-trader…it's not in my nature). It's not that it's easy, but the right indicators certainly help. So, right now I'm sitting with an entry already in the top 10% of all participants, with over a month and a half left to go. Hopefully, I can keep up the pace.
It's definitely piqued my interest, and I'd love to try my hand at some actual stock investing in the near future now.
Sep 012007
A few links I came across recently caught my attention by discussing academic excellence and the education system. First is Are We Failing Our Geniuses? from TIME, which discusses the lack of available programs for advanced students. Second was the discussion of offering free college tuition for Math, Science and Engineering majors as proposed by Montana Senator Max Baucus. The idea there being that our programs are falling behind those in other countries, and therefore the incentive is designed to pull more students into those fields to have better overall programs.
I have to say, I've personally been pretty disappointed with our nation's education system for some time now. The No Child Left Behind act has encouraged schools to act like a union, where those not carrying their weight get promoted anyway due to contract rules and those performing better cannot get ahead. Where's the incentive to work hard? I truly believe this is where most politicians (and people in general) get confused between "equal opportunity" and "equality".
As for the free tuition idea, I believe the senator is just a bit misguided, or just trying to make a name for himself. The root of the problem is not a lack of interest, but a lack of understanding about the need for math, science and engineering in the foundational years of education.
Today, most subjects like to downplay it, but math and science make up the basis for almost everything we do. However, we're now getting business majors who can't do basic calculus (great for observing trends in earnings and markets), computer science majors who can't problem solve (and if you can't do that, then a program can probably be written to replace you), and civil engineers who create aesthetic roads that are absolutely unusable (that goes double for Pittsburgh).
The root of the problem may lie in the fact that most of today's teachers carry a degree in Education, and really don't have a specialty or a passion for one. Unfortunately, it's not years of education in Education that make a great teacher, but a passion for their subject and wanting to pass that passion on to others that makes a great teacher. I was fortunate to have a few of these teachers over the years, and am very thankful that I did.
Aug 062007
- Smarter Teens Have Less Sex – Maybe they know the problems that can result if you screw up at that age?
- Electric Car May Usher Changes – A Norwegian car company named Think is looking to change the way people look at electric cars and car sales in general.
- Singles, Not Albums, Define Music Industry Success – Only interesting because it was clearly written by someone who wasn't paying attention. Fifteen years ago, the music industry was doing fine and releasing quality albums. However, closer to ten years ago they decided that they could make more money by putting a single with a bunch of crappy songs and still calling it an album. The only problem with this change by the industry is that it came about the time that the MP3 was gaining popularity and file sharing on the internet was growing. Basically, their plan backfired as people realized that they could get the one decent song for free instead of wasting $15-20. Since then, the music industry has been scrambling to figure out what to do now, and their mislead efforts to sue kids who downloaded a few songs and raise internet radio royalty rates (a source which is probably one of their biggest advertising posibilities at this time). In fact, the music industry could probably do better if they could put together solid albums instead of aiming for one-hit wonders.
Feb 272007
Just a quick post today, but CNN.com is reporting on a study that shows that college students are becoming more vain. Clearly, the people conducting the study completed college at least 30 years ago, or they would have saved themselves the trouble of stating the obvious to all of us.
While the article even tries to spin it in a good light (stating that narcissism may even be good in some situations, specifically citing having the courage to go to American Idol auditions…that's right, even William Hung), the truth is that there a number of people in my generation and the next coming generation are going to be in a lot of trouble when they realize that the "You're special!" and "You can do whatever you want!" hippy feel-good mantras leave them stuck in a go-nowhere job, because they never put the effort into developing marketable skillsets, and lonely, because they put their image above all meaningful friendships and relationships.
Granted, this won't happen to everyone, but even if it happens to as much as a quarter of graduates, it's a shame.
Besides, if we were all special, then nobody would be special!
Feb 022007
I'm still amazed by all the hubub from Boston since Wednesday about the Adult Swim promotion gone awry. Expecially now that
they've got the two guys who put up the promotions in custody, because they really don't deserve to be there.
Make sure you take the 2 minutes to watch the "A scary 'promotion'" video linked from that page and the "Web video shows men placing light boards around Boston" video on this page. You'll quickly realize how 
rediculous it was that someone mistake something that looks like it was made with a Lite-Brite for a bomb. Plus, the promotions went up in nine other major cities, and none of them called in bomb threats.
I'm sure the city of Boston is looking for someone to hold responsible (both morally and financially) for this situation, where they appear to have blown over a half-million dollars dealing with these "potential bombs".
However, they'd probably be better off fessing up to their own mistakes in the situation and moving on. But these are politicians heading the charge, so don't expect that to happen. However this ends, it's probably going to be badly, and it'll probably cost more than a half-million in taxpayer money. Thankfully, I don't live in Massachusetts, so I don't have to help foot the bill.
Oh, and you might want to think about throwing that old Lite-Brite away, or someone might think you're building a bomb…
.
UPDATE: Well, it looks like the city got Turner Broadcasting to foot the bill for their overzealous response, as well as provide $1 million in "goodwill funds" that will be divided amongst the agencies to provide emergency response training, among other initiatives. I'd love to be in one of those training classes as the instructor went back and forth between a package C4 and a Lite-Brite going "bomb", "not bomb", "bomb", "not bomb".
Nov 132006
While it's nice to see that a memorial will be built for the remarkable Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I have to admit that it seems a bit excessive to build one that will cost $100 million. Heck, King himself might even be rolling over in his graving knowing all that money was going to a memorial and not to helping further the cause of equality.
For all the good intentions, I can't help but shake my head after reading about that…