Saturday, May 10, 2008

My Austin Election Resource Page - Will the Web Ever Improve Democracy?

 

I find it hard to believe that candidates still spend so much money on signs, ads, phone calls and commercials when the internet makes it so inexpensive and easy to communicate. All that money spent seems so useless when a candidate can just create a free blog and discuss the issues and their solutions.

Here's an example of how a political issue can be described in a blog post. Note the references, the quotes and the charts. Also, it allows comments so you can read other opinions. There is no better and cheaper way to communicate your ideas than on the web.

Many candidates do have campaign websites, but most aren't much better than their signs. It's nothing like the example above in which issues are discussed and debated at length. They don't need fancy websites. I just want to read about the issues and their take on the issues. Also, I want to see that they've been thinking about the issues long before the campaign.

If no one reads the candidates' websites, they'll keep putting their resource into those paper signs that litter our city or those robo phone calls that clutter our voice mail. They'll keep having to pay big money for those signs and ads. And unfortunately, those with money will have an advantage.

So I thought I would do my part to help democracy, by sharing a few links where you can find all of the candidates' websites. In addition, I've included links to other important election resources. If you know of another useful resource, please leave a comment.

Voter Resources to the May 10, 2008 Austin Election

• Keep Austin Voting - best number of links
• Austin at Issue - Austin issues forum
• Burnt Orange Report's Austin City Council resource page
• Election Day Polling Places
• Statesman Endorsements
• Austin Chronicle Election Coverage

posted by Ken on 3:49 AM permalink and comments  

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Thursday, January 04, 2007

How Low Can a Towing Company Go? Incident at the S. Congress DPS Office

 

Going to the DPS office has never been fun, but today it reached a new low. I went to the Austin South Congress DPS office to renew my driver's license. After an hour in the office, I came out to find my car had been towed. But that's not what really made me mad.

My Trip to the DPS Office

Before going to the office, I made sure to get the address from the Texas DPS's website. Not being familiar with this area, I checked the South Congress location at Google Maps. I came from the north and saw the building with the street address that was listed at the website. I parked in front of the building making sure to avoid the handicap spot. I saw a police car parked near the fence so I thought this was the correct spot. The door was locked so I thought the DPS office entrance must be on the other side. The time in the office was long but not too bad. I got there at 10:13am and left just after 11:00am.

Car Towed!

When I returned to the north parking lot, I found that my car was gone. I then started to notice a couple of signs that did warn against parking there with the risk of towed. Of course I wish I had been more observant, but the no-parking sign wasn't in front of where I parked. The parking lot was for the building with the DPS address. The address was clearly on the building.

The car was indeed towed, and while I was waiting for my friend to pick me up, the towers were driving around getting ready to tow others. I met one other guy who also had his car towed. I was mad, but the next thing that happened got my blood burning.

What Made Me Really Mad

A handicap person had parked in a handicap spot next to where I had parked. I checked and confirmed that the car had a legal handicap tag on the rear view mirror. The company was in the process of towing this car. I pleaded with the guys to give this handicap person a break, but they said they didn't care. I then went into the DPS office to try to notify this person. When that failed, I returned, and fortunately, the owner of the car had made it back before the car was towed.

The towers were very mad and threatened to have me arrested for trespassing. They were also mad that I had been informing people who had been parking there that they were at risk of being towed. I informed at least two other people while waiting for my friend to pick me up.

The towing company charged me almost $200. I felt I was forced to pay. Luckily, I had my debit card and had enough money in my account (Note, they don't take credit cards.) The other person who had his car towed was also there. I fear that he may have had trouble paying this $200 charge.

Scam?

This towing company must be making a ton of money, and I wonder if the person leasing this office area is making some of this. They probably do have enough signs around the parking lot to be legal in their actions. I doubt they care, however, about the morality of their actions.

So if you do have to go to the South Congress DPS office, be sure not to park in the north parking lot. Hopefully, the tow company won't threaten me again for providing this warning.

I should note that the DPS workers were very helpful in assisting me. They did have a small sign warning about this. Hopefully, this sign will be made much bigger.

posted by Ken on 1:25 PM permalink and comments  

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Monday, June 27, 2005

It's Ipod Easy

 

What do you call something so simple and easy to use that anybody can do it? You could say it's easy as pie. But if you want to be hip, it's Ipod easy.

I just came up with this phrase over the weekend. I checked Google, and I can't find any reference to "it's Ipod easy"

Since the marketers over at Apple need all the help they can get, I thought I would make this public to help Ipod sales.

posted by Ken on 4:01 PM permalink and comments  

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Tuesday, June 21, 2005

It's a miracle! Toast with face of Jackson

 

As reported by the BBC, people claim that slices of toast with images of Michael Jackson have popped out of their toasters around the time of Michael Jackson's verdict.

They're now selling on ebay. One current sale has 11 bids with the top bid going for $10.50. It still has 5 days left. How high will it go?

Believe it or not, toast with the Virgin Mary image sold for $28K last year.

What are the chances that any of these are legitimate? My guess is that a lot of them have been crafted with the image. Perhaps they were burnt and then the images were made by scraping the burnt top layer off. Or perhaps images were made by selectively coating the bread with butter and then toasted. The coated bread will cook differently and thereby leave an image.

Here are some good lines I got from Free Republic:

• Michael's career is toast.
• It's the brownest he's been in a long, long time...
• Did you hear the one about Michael Jackson's toaster? The bread goes in brown and comes out white...

posted by Ken on 4:25 PM permalink and comments  

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Thursday, June 16, 2005

Unused gift cards, Seinfeld, and my advice

 

According to this MSNBC article, Home Depot reported on June 2nd that it has taken $43 million in income from gift cards that are unlikely to be redeemed. It's the first time Home Depot has recognized this gift card breakage.

The article gives the stat that about 10% of the value of gift cards sold goes unused due to being lost, forgotten, or expired.

At least Home Depot's gift cards don't have expiration dates or fees for nonuse. The $43 million is just an accounting thing. Since the cards are older than 2001, they figure it's very unlikely that much of that will be redeemed.

Most other retailers consider the unused cards as liability, and thus, they justify having expiration dates or nonuse fees.

I tend to agree with consumer advocate Clark Howard's opinion about gift cards:

"They are a terrible waste of money and a complete rip-off. Basically, you're taking real American money and turning it into a piece of plastic that can only be used in one store."

But I have to admit it's more personal than cash and a lot easier and less risky than a physical gift. One always feels bad when you get someone the wrong gift whether it's something they already have or something that they don't really want. And there's something just not right about giving cash. Why give anything in that case? Let's just take $50 and pass it to the next friend or family who has a birthday.

As Kramer said to Jerry in that Seinfeld "The Deal" episode where Jerry gives Elaine cash for her birthday:

"Cash? You gotta be kinding. What kind of gift is that? That's like something her uncle would get her."

BTW, that's the episode where Elaine and Jerry make "the deal" in which they agree to be intimate without a relationship. But Elaine's birthday is the final straw that broke that camel's back.

So here's my advice about gift cards. Keep the amount small (like under $30). Remember that it's the thought that counts. Adding more money to a gift doesn't increase the thought.

posted by Ken on 4:58 PM permalink and comments  

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Wednesday, June 15, 2005

New, old and odd prostate cancer studies

 

The latest study was reported today by WebMD. It suggests that sunshine may protect against prostate cancer:

"Men with high solar exposure had their risk of prostate cancer cut in half"

The main reason seems to be due to vitamin D. The article mentioned that 80% to 90% of vitamin D in the body is derived from sunlight, not from diet.

Other studies have also shown the same vitamin D linkage.

In searching around on WebMD, I found some other interesting prostate cancer prevention studies. These include Whey Protein Prevent Prostate Cancer, Broccoli Blocks Prostate Cancer Cells, Soy: Prevent Prostate Cancer, Male Baldness?, and Tomatoes Lower Prostate Cancer Risk.

Perhaps it's not the specific food, but just a low fat diet that helps the prostate. Well, not according to this study, Low-Fat Diet Doesn't Help Prostate.

Finally, the most bizarre study that I've found doesn't have anything to do with diet, excercise, or sleep. I suppose some may consider it a form of exercise. The article's title is Frequent Ejaculation May be Good for Prostate.

Of course these articles claim that more studies are required before recommendations are made for people. WebMD reported on that last study in April 2004. I wonder if more studies are under way. If there are more positive findings, I wonder what the religious right will be saying...

posted by Ken on 4:25 PM permalink and comments  

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Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Does diet soda cause weight gain?

 

This WebMD article reports on a study that finds a link between diet soda consumption and obesity.

The author of the study summarizes the results as:

"There was a 41% increase in risk of being overweight for every can or bottle of diet soft drink a person consumes each day,"

However, the author makes the point that this doesn't prove that diet soda causes obesity. It might be due to people thinking that they can have the Big Mac and fries as long as they substitute a diet soda for regular. The article did give another possibility. Diet soda that tastes like it's high in calories but actually isn't may cause the body to want calories. I tend to side with the Big Mac theory.

posted by Ken on 4:40 PM permalink and comments  

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Thursday, June 09, 2005

Simpsons movie in preproduction. Worthwhile?

 

Yahoo! reports that The Simpsons movie is in preproduction. So it looks like it'll definitely be in the theaters in about two years.

Usually, movies are made after a show goes off the air. But the Simpsons episodes are still making good money so they decided to break from tradition and start on the film.

Seems like The Simpsons TV show has gone on forever. This fall will be its 17th season.

Many say that the show stopped being funny long ago. Has the show jumped the shark? Will the movie be any good?

In my opinion, jokes that combine satire and wit still make Simpsons worth watching. Here's an example from the Gay Marriage episode in which Homer becomes a reverend to cash in on gay marriages (becomes ordained minister online and prints out the priest collar). As Springfield experiences "an outbreak of marriage fever", Kent Brockman interviews Homer:

Homer, have we started down a slippery slope, where marriage becomes so meaningless that anyone could marry anything?
Oh, Kent, not anything. It has to exist.....Or does it?.....

Nothing like Homer wisdom.....

posted by Ken on 4:56 PM permalink and comments  

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Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Toyota's response to GM problems and US's future?

 

In this CNN article, the Toyota chairman, Hiroshi Okuda, said on Wednesday that he feared the possibility that US policy could turn against Japenese auto makers if the big U.S. companies like GM and Ford were to go under.

Japanese auto makers have tried to reduce this possiblity by increasing local production in the US. Many Toyotas are now built in the US. But Okuda fears there will still likely be policy changes in the US.

As GM lays off more workers and closes more US plants, the question is what can be done?

Some blame the unions with their sweetheart health-care and pension deals that they've bullied through over the years.

Some blame it on GM for not making anything people want to buy.

Some blame it on GM's management in being short-sighted by putting too many eggs in their gas guzzling SUVs and not investing enough in fuel efficent cars.

The number one thing GM needs to do along with all US companies is to innovate. Innovate to improve productivity, reduce costs, improve reliability. It requires innovation and hard work at every level. That's the only long term solution to GM, Ford and all other US companies.

I have to admit, it's not easy. Capitalism may be the best economic system, but it's essentially a non-violent war. Play by the laws and be ethical, but remember, it's a war.

posted by Ken on 4:20 PM permalink and comments  

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Thursday, April 07, 2005

Energy Bill Lengthens Daylight Saving Time by 2 Months

 

CNN reports that a new energy bill in Congress includes an extension of daylight savings time to begin on the first Sunday in March and end on the last Sunday in November.

As one Congressmen states:

"The more daylight we have, the less electricity we use"

I think he may have forgotten that although we gain an hour in the evening, we lose an hour in the morning. Unfortunately, mankind does not have the power to change the Earth's rotation to optimize daylight....

In my opinion, daylight savings time does nothing to save energy. This article also makes this point. It may be good if you like to do things outside in the evenings. But that's about it.

posted by Ken on 2:37 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, April 03, 2005

Favorite Cap10K Costume - Giant Cigarette

 

As I was watching the Cap10K today, a runner caught my attention with his costume. He had a giant cigarette costume. It was a foam cylinder that extended from the knees to several feet above his head. It was not just a costume but a political statement. He had the sign "Vote for Tolerance" on top. I have to admit it's very creative. I hope he gets the best costume award.

With the smoking ban vote coming up in May, this does bring up an important question. Is voting yes for the ban a vote against tolerance?

I don't smoke and don't like being around smoke. However, I accept the right of others to smoke. But it's not just a personal freedom issue. I think the main issue may be the health issue for employees who work in these smoky public places. Second hand smoke has been proven to cause cancer, and those who work in these places for years will probably be more at risk.

Current ordinance already requires restaurants that allow smoking to have fully ventilated smoking sections. Is a total ban necessary? Can't ventilation systems reduce enough second hand smoke to diminish the health risks? If that can be done, perhaps we should vote for tolerance.

BTW, a runner did have a heart attack during the run. I don't suppose it was the cigarette man...

posted by Ken on 3:42 PM permalink and comments  

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April Fool's Day Notes to Self

 

Note to self #1: When selecting image to modify for April Fool's hoax, ensure image has not already been modified. Note to self #2: Learn Photoshop (or GIMP).

Some humorous April Fool's stuff on the web:

• Fundue - desktop USB Fondue Set
• SkyTag - Green Laser Aircraft Tracker - Automatically tracks aircrafts with a laser
• iCopulate - A latex sleeve that connects together two iPods
• Executive Pong - Super fancy version of pong

The best history of April Fool's that I've found is on Wikipedia. It also lists all of the notable April Fool's hoaxes for each year starting in 2001. Here's the 2005 list. Unfortunately, it doesn't list me.

posted by Ken on 2:51 PM permalink and comments  

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Thursday, March 31, 2005

A Rare Error on Texas Quarters Found

 

Late last year, it was discovered that some Wisconsin Quarters made at the Denver Mint featured an extra leaf on the left side of the corn cob. These flawed quarters have proven to be very rare and are selling for hundreds of dollars on Ebay and elsewhere. There has been speculation that these errors may have been done intentionally by the Mint. The Mint says it is investigating.

USA Today article

A new and more disconcerting error has recently been found. This time it's on the Texas quarter. A few people around the US have come across a Texas quarter, also from the Denver Mint, which has an error in the motto "E Pluribus Unum". This motto comes from a Latin poem and means "from many, one". It was selected in 1776 and refers to the formation of one federal state from many individual political units.

Error-Free Texas Quarter	Error in "E Pluribus Unum"

As shown, the error on the Texas quarter adds the letter "H" onto "Pluribus" to make "E Pluribush Unum". Some have speculated that this might have been done by an employee of the Mint as a protest against Bush's foreign policy.

In foreign affairs, some have accused Bush and his inner circle of invading Iraq for reasons of world dominance rather than of removing weapons of mass destruction. They claim Iraq is just the first step of Bush's ultimate goal of applying "from many, one" to the entire world.

Is this rare Texas Quarter error just a simple mistake? Is it a political protest? Or perhaps there are more insidious motives? Whatever the case, be sure to keep an eye out for it.

posted by Ken on 6:50 AM permalink and comments  

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Tuesday, January 04, 2005

LBJ Museum Visit and Thoughts on Vietnam and Iraq

 

After several years in Austin, I finally visited the LBJ Library and Museum. How similar is Iraq with Vietnam? Well, that was part of my investigation.

The Museum

First of all, the visit to the LBJ Library and Museum was well worth it. It's an impressive 8-story building located near the Royal Memorial stadium on the University of Texas campus. Even if you're not interested in history, the building and it's surroundings are worth visiting. The first and second floor are mostly the museum. Also, some of the museum is on the eighth floor with an Oval Office replica. The eighth floor also provides a nice view of the stadium, UT, and downtown Austin. Floors 3 through 6 are where the archives are located which can be seen from the Great Hall. The Great Hall provides the grandeur one would expect from a presidential library. This hall is about 60 feet high. The giant 4-story archives are visible through windows, and there is a large marble staircase connecting the first and second floor.

Unlike all other presidential libraries (every president since Hoover has a library), LBJ's library provides free admission. It's open every day except Christmas. So I realized I didn't have an excuse for not visiting.

Some may think the presidential libraries offer a one-sided history of the presidents. The museums do focus more on the good than the bad that happened during the president's term. However, both the good and the bad are covered. All major historical events are covered regardless if they were favorable to the president. So for history buffs, like myself, these museums are very interesting. I'm not a resercher, so my visit was just to the museum portion of the library. Researchers with specific searches can gain access to the archives.

Vietnam and Iraq Similarities

In LBJ's famous speech in 1968 where he announced he was not going to run for re-election, he included several interesting points regarding Vietnam. Here is one excerpt:

We and our allies can only help to provide a shield behind which the people of South Vietnam can survive and can grow and develop. On their efforts--on their determination and resourcefulness--the outcome will ultimately depend.

Note the similarities with Iraq. First, it starts with "We and our allies". Note the similarities with how Bush describes our force in Iraq. We are part of a coalition, although the vast majority are US. Second, note that our goal in Vietnam is just like our goal in Iraq, "provide a shield behind which the people" "can survive and can grow and develop". In Vietnam, it was a shield against the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese army. In Iraq, it is a shield against the insurgents and terrorists.

In another portion of LBJ's speech, he recalls JFK's famous quote about Americans:

pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

The Iraqi War, like the Vietnam War, has turned into a war where this is the fundamental motivation (at least in public). Defeat in both cases mean the defeat of liberty and democracy. In the 60's, it was the Domino Theory of spreading communism. Today, it's the Domino Theory of spreading Islamic radicalism.

Well, South Vietnam did finally get taken over by the North, and South Asia didn't all fall under Communism. Time will tell what will happen in the Middle East.

One thing should be noted. There is an important difference between Vietnam and Iraq. North Vietnam had strong backing of the Soviets. Iraqi insurgents don't have any strong backing of any nation. They may have subtle backings of some in Iraq and in Arab nations. But this support is much different than what existed between North Vietnam, the Vietcong, and the Soviets.

Some of the miscellaneous history I found interesting during my museum visit:

• LBJ covered Texas in a helicopter for his 1948 Senate campaign.
• LBJ's first senate victory in 1948 was won by 87 votes from box 13 in a precinct in South Texas. His opponent claimed fraud and it took the Supreme Court to settle it.
• During LBJ's term, the Surgeon General came out with it's warnings about smoking. LBJ was a cigarette smoker and had a heart attack as a Senator in 1955. Also he died somewhat young at age 64.
• Medicare was enacted during LBJ's term plus a lot of "Great Society" legislation that was enacted as part of "unconditional war on poverty" (always thought the word "war" has been overused and abused by politicians.)
• LBJ had a special 3-TV setup in the Oval Office where he would watch news on all 3 of the major networks.
• 1968 was a chaotic year: the Tet offensive, USSR's invasion of Czechoslovakia, MLK's asassination, riots, RFK's assassination, and the wild Democratic convention. However, the year was capped off by the first moon orbit in preparation for the Apollo moon landing. It offerred the U.S. and the world the first look at what the planet earth looks like in deep space.

My favorite LBJ quote:

A president's hardest task is not to do what is right, but to know what is right.

Related Links:

• LBJ Library and Museum Home Page
• LBJ Biography
• Links to all of the Presidential Libraries Websites
• Speculation about the future George W. Bush Library

posted by Ken on 4:06 PM permalink and comments  

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Friday, December 03, 2004

Cool and Cheap Xmas Gifts

 

Just read this Wired News article on "the coolest geek shopping list ever". Usually, the cool gifts are out of my price range for Christmas gifts. But Wired also listed 30 gifts under $30. And there are several really cool ones. Here are my favorite:

• Fluorescent fish for your aquarium for only about $5 available at a pet store near you. Genetic science was used to add a fluorescent gene to zebra fish. According to the Glofish site, this was originally done with the intention to improve the detection of pollution in our waterways. After they realized of the public's interest in these fish, they then decided to sell them. You'll have to judge the ethics of this, but I would recommend not giving these to someone in the Green party (unless you like to get under their skin...)
• Cellular ring alarm If you often miss a cell phone call because you can't hear it in your purse or for some other reason, here's what might be a good solution. It's a pen or bracelet that will light up when it detects the incoming cell signal. The cost is between $10 and $20.
• Amazing money jar bank has an LCD on the lid that displays the value of the coins that you've placed in the jar. Amazingly, it adds the value as you drop them into the jar. It's only $14.95. It's a great way to encourage saving in kids.
• Block-O-Dile Tired of stepping on your kid's lego blocks? This might be the answer. It's a robot-like crocodile that eats up lego blocks from the floor and stores them for the next play time. It's only $14.99. BTW, I was always a big lego fan in my early years.
• Car charger for your Ipods It plugs into your car's cigarette lighter to recharge any USB or FireWire port device like a Gameboy or an Ipod. This sells for $18.99. Addlogicx also has some other neat USB gadgets like a USB beverage warmer and a USB miniature christmas tree with LED lights. I never would imagine these kinds of USB applications.
• Key chain WiFi sniffer For those always looking for a WiFi signal, here's a really cool gadget. It'll detect a WiFi signal and show you the strength on its four LEDs. It's selling for $24.99.

posted by Ken on 6:38 AM permalink and comments  

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Tuesday, November 30, 2004

Winning stuff. It's been ruined

 

I have a message for the advertising folks. Give up on the sweepstakes and all ads that claim that the reader has won something. I for one have had enough. The Publisher Clearing House could come to my home with cameras, balloons, and a giant check, and I wouldn't believe it. You advertising guys have ruined it. It's like spam. I refuse to even take a look at what you're selling if you're running these idiotic ads.

I can't believe how many online ads there that say "you just won this" or "pick the person and win this". Just today Wired News had the very annoying banner ad with an animated boxer with two punch buttons that said "Knock him down! For a FREE Ipod!". Please don't insult our intelligence. If we knock down the boxer, you won't be sending any of us a free Ipod with no strings attached. At best, it's something like freeipod.com where you first have to sign up with some program with lots of requirements before we get the chance at the Ipod.

Another annoying advertising ploy is the "free check" that's sent to us in snail mail. At first it looks like a real check. The amount is usually not that much so it makes it look more believable. But then you read the small print where you would endorse it, and it says that by signing the check you enroll yourself into some program which of course has some monthly fee. So the check is just a contract in disguise. One of these days, I know I'll be ripping up a real check because of these stupid "ad checks".

One reason why Google is so popular is that there are none of these stupid and annoying advertising techniques. There are no banners saying we won something. Or that you can win something by just hitting the monkey. Their ads are just links with some informative text. If there's something interesting, I'll click on it. If not, I don't. There are no advertising tricks or games. Hopefully the rest of the advertising world will learn from Google.

posted by Ken on 4:09 PM permalink and comments  

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Friday, October 29, 2004

Paid to watch TV

 

Loyalty cards idea for TV addicts

Soon you may be able to be rewarded for watching TV. This BBC article describes a new feature to be added to British set-top boxes. This feature allows the hookup of a smartcard that could act as a loyality card. As the article mentions:

"Viewers who stay loyal to a particular TV channel could be rewarded by free TV content or freebies from retail partners."

Do people really need incentives to watch more TV? How about also tying the smartcard to a stationary bike. Not only do you have to watch a specific TV channel, but you also have to pedal. Perhaps that way, the average weight of the next generation won't be 400lbs.

posted by Ken on 1:53 PM permalink and comments  

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Wednesday, October 20, 2004

Try a demo of Florida's online voting

 

Florida Online Vote Demo

Although this is funny, I for one, don't take it seriously. I don't believe the Bush family and the Diebold Election Systems company have a conspiracy to unfairly win this election. There's going to be a lot of folks keeping an eye out for anything suspicious this time. Here's an interesting Wired News Article on this.

Also, I'm a little tired of hearing the accusations that Bush and his family used their influence and tricks to win the 2000 election. Face it, George W. Bush won fair and square in 2000. The system wasn't perfect and still isn't, but it doesn't mean there was a conspiracy or anything systematically corrupt.

posted by Ken on 4:20 PM permalink and comments  

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Monday, October 18, 2004

Putin urges voters to back Bush

 

Link to CNN article

Putin didn't really endorse Bush. But he did suggest that a Bush defeat will likely give terrorists in Iraqi a sense of victory. Here's a quote from Putin that was on the CNN article:

"International terrorists have set as their goal inflicting the maximum damage to Bush, to prevent his election to a second term. If they succeed in doing that, they will celebrate a victory over America and over the entire anti-terror coalition"

I think this could have a significant affect on voters. The subtle thought that a vote for Kerry could make terrorists in Iraq and Afghan happy in any way could swing voters towards the Bush camp. Then add on top of that the already subtle feel that Kerry just doesn't have the toughness.

Based on what I've heard from Kerry and Edwards, I don't doubt they will be tough on the terrorists. But there is that nagging subconscious feeling of doubt which could sway voters.

posted by Ken on 3:19 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, October 03, 2004

After the First Presidential Debate

 

I was impressed by the first presidential debate last Thursday. Even though the two campaigns had scripted a lot of the debate, there was still a lot of useful back-and-forth. We got a chance to learn about issues and the candidates. And I'm grateful to Bush for agreeing to 2 more debates. Clinton had only agreed to 2 in 1996.

Quoting the First Bush

I thought Kerry scored one when he quoted from a book written by the first Bush about the first Iraqi war. The first Bush explained why he didn't march to Baghdad and how it would turn into a quagmire. This is probably going to go down in history as one of the most ironic events in American history.

I want a president who could have prevented World War II and could have avoided the quagmire of Vietnam

Iraq was neither Nazi Germany nor 1960's Vietnam. Nevertheless, there seems to be two competing issues. Bush saw a threat in Saddam that became more apparent after 9/11. UN resolutions, inspections, and bombings by Clinton failed to make any real changes in Saddam's regime. I think Bush and many of his advisors did see similarities between Iraq and Nazi Germany. And they realized once those similarities became apparent (perhaps 10 years from now) it would be too late. I wonder if we would have appreciated the Nazi threat if a British or French leader decided to invade Germany to end Hitler's regime in the early or mid 30's.

Then we have the fears of the first Bush about Iraq. He knew how the occupation of Iraq could lead to a Vietnam-like quagmire. In the 60's many of our leaders saw South Vietnam as a critical stand against communist take-over of South East Asia. In 1975, South Vietnam was taken over and communist domino theory was proven wrong.

I believe Bush Senior felt it was not his presidency, it was his son's. Only his son had the current information to make the appropriate decisions. Thus, I don't believe the senior Bush ever discouraged his son in making the decision to invade.

Another Great Saturday Night Live Debate

SNL opened last night with another great mock presidential debate. Seth Meyers did a great job at Kerry who didn't let anyone forget about his Vietnam experience. Will Forte did a good job at Bush who made sure to let everyone know how much "hard work" is being done.

Here's my favorite quote from the SNL debate. It was from Kerry's (Meyers) closing statement:

The fact of the matter is , I have consistently supported the war in front of pro-war audiences, and condemned it when speaking to groups who oppose it. That is not flip-flopping, that is pandering, and America deserves a president who knows the difference.

posted by Ken on 3:15 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, September 26, 2004

Presidential Debates, PBS, and SNL

 

Next Thursday will be the first debate between Bush and Kerry. Last Friday, PBS's Now with Bill Moyers discussed some problems with today's presidential debates. Now talked about how the presidential debates used to be run by the League of Women Voters. However, the two parties got together in the late 80's and set up the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). Now the CPD runs the debates and has essentially turned the debates into dual campaign speeches. The CPD makes sure that nothing might happen that could make the candidates look bad.

Well, even though the debates aren't going to be as free-format as we would hope, it'll still be better than the conventions and the campaign speeches. At least there should be some back and forth discussion.

The best presidential debate that I remember was the 1992 Bush/Clinto/Perot debate. It's amazing that Ross Perot was able to get into this debate (This was after CPD took charge). Perot was lucky since both parties thought Perot would hurt the other guy more. Perot's presence made for a very useful and entertaining debate.

Also entertaining was Saturday Night Live's spoof on this debate. Dana Carvey played both Bush and Perot. His imitation of Perot was classic. Here is a quote from Carvey in this spoof debate that I still remember:

As we've been playing games here, the national debt has gone up by 3.2 million dollars. That's enough to buy an outhouse and a still for every man, woman, and child in Littlerock.

- Dana Carvey (as Ross Perot)

posted by Ken on 2:52 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, September 19, 2004

Invention Ideas

 

Kramer always had some unique invention ideas. In the "Hello" episode, Kramer hires a college interm to free up his time so he can pursue his ideas for Kramerica Industries. In this episode, Kramer and the intern pursue the idea of a rubber bladder system for oil tankers. At the end of the show, this plot connects with both Jerry's plot (his girlfriend who hated the "hello voice") and George's plot (his battle with his employer, Play Now). As you might suspect, this bladder system goes terribly bad... It is at this time that Kramer comes up with a very interesting invention: "ketchup and mustard in the same bottle".

Kramer's ketchup/mustard invention reminded me of one of my invention ideas. I've always had trouble with cavities. So I've acquired a very strict dental hygiene habit. I brush 3 times a day. I floss twice a day. At night I brush, floss, use a water pik, and then rinse with a flouride mouthwash. I've also started to rinse in the mornings with generic Listerine which is suppose to reduce plaque.

One thing that I haven't seen is a mouthwash that combines the Listerine ingredients with flouride. It would be a mouthwash that reduces both plaque and cavities. Well, this is my ketchup/mustard invention. Perhaps the name could be Flourine...

posted by Ken on 1:25 PM permalink and comments  

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More Seinfeld Trivia

 

Did Jerry ever propose to Elaine?

Yes, in the "Serenity Now" epsiode, Jerry and Elaine almost hook up. In this episode, Jerry's girlfriend gets him to let his feelings out. After breaking up with her, his feelings continue to pore out to the dismay of George and Elaine. That's when Jerry gets down on his knee and is about to propose until Elaine gets freaked out and leaves before Jerry gets the chance to officially propose. But then George "opens up" to Jerry and "scares him straight". Thanks to George, Jerry is "cured" of this emotional side. This happened right before Elaine returns to say yes.

Elaine had her own troubles in this episode when Mr. Lippman's son makes a pass at her at his bar mitzvah. Mr. Lippman and the Rabbi also hit on her as she learns of the Shiks-appeal.

Kramer has his troubles as he installs a screen door on his apartment and makes his own version of an old fashion American front porch in what he called Anytown USA.

The "serenity now" phrase was started by Georoge's dad, Frank Castanza, as a technique to keep calm. He kept yelling it through out the episode as his wife, Estelle, kept nagging him. Before long George and Kramer started using it themselves. George learns too late of this effect of "bottling up" your anger when Kramer ruins George's scheme to beat his arch nemesis, Lloyd Braun, at selling his dad's computers.

posted by Ken on 1:02 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, September 12, 2004

My Invention Room

 

I came across the Ars Electronica t+25 timeline which is part of the Ars Electronica Festival. This a forum where people can make predictions about the next 25 years. I particularily liked how this forum allowed people to easily contribute a prediction, vote for or against predictions, and add comments.

I contibuted the following two predictions. I signed my name ken1706 (showing my admiration for Ben Franklin.) These two predictions are part invention and part societal trends:

Prediction For 2007: New Hybrid Online Grocery Shopping Becomes Popular

Although pure electric cars never became popular, the hybrids did. Like electric cars, online grocery shops didn't do well with many going out of business during the dot-com bust of 2000.

But like hybrid cars, hybrid online grocery stores do become successful, and by 2007, 20% of people do some shopping at these stores.

In the new hybrid online grocery stores, you place your order online and then pick up the order at the store's drive-thru. Unlike the traditional online grocery store, there's no costly delivery.

The online ordering and drive-thru make it much quicker and more convenient for the shopper especially for picking up items like milk. Also, it allows the stores to have a much lower overhead. They don't need cash registers or cashiers (all orders are taken online). The stores can operate at a much higher volume in much smaller buildings and parking lots since customers don't go into the store, but merely pick their online orders up from the drive-thru.

Prediction For 2009: Popularity of Physical Video Games (PVGs) Reducing Childhood Obesity

The rise of Phyical Video Games (PVGs) has dramatically reduced childhood obesity. These new PVGs require the players to perform physical activity such as pedaling while they play the video game. Certain games reward players extra for the most pedaling. Other games just require pedaling to keep the game going.

World-wide competitions take place on the web where video gamers/atheletes compete in virtual race tracks. The games require both physical endurance and video game skill to make it through the virtual course. These competitions and their support by famous atheletes have helped to make PVGs a hit with kids in the last year.

Parents are pleased to see the connection of physical activity with video games. Doctors credit this fad to a significant reduction in childhood obesity and diabetes.

posted by Ken on 1:30 PM permalink and comments  

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Seinfeld Trivia

 

How many sitcoms of the four main characters have failed since Seinfeld's last episode? So far I believe there's been three: First, there was "The Michael Richards Show", then there was Jason Alexander's "Bob Patterson", and lastly, there was Julia Louis-Dreyfus' "Watching Ellie".

Now Jason Alexander is trying to break this "curse of Seinfeld" with the new sitcom, "Listen Up". The most important thing in a sitcom in my opinion is the writing. That's why the previous three post-Seinfeld sitcoms failed. The writing on Seinfeld was great. Both Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David did a great job at turning out creative shows week after week.

I've read over the CBS's overview of the show, and I'm not sure it'll break the Seinfeld curse. I did like the George Costanza character. Jason's character in this new show seems to share some of this. CBS's page characterizes Jason's character as "paranoid and obsessive-but-loving husband". It all depends on the writing. "Listen Up" premieres on CBS on Monday September 20, 8:30 ET/PT.

Here are some Seinfeld sayings and other interesting Seinfeld trivia that I've picked up in the last few weeks while watching reruns:

• Tub is Love: This is the episode where Elaine admits to faking it with Jerry. The saying came from Jerry as George was discussing his girlfriend with him. If you're cleaning your tub, you are serious about the girlfriend.
• Hipster Dufus: This was said in at least two episodes. The first time I heard it was the episode where Kramer convinces George to park in a handicap space. This causes a wheel-chaired lady to park in another spot where she got hurt getting out of the car. Kramer feels guilty, visits this lady, and falls in love. This women, who we never heard, breaks up with Kramer and calls him a hipster dufus (as recalled by Kramer). I also heard Elaine call Kramer a hipster dufus in the episode where she gets bit by a dog in an optical store where George was looking for a new pair of glasses to replace those he thought were stolen at the health club. Elaine became paranoid that the dog might have rabies. Kramer makes things worse my mentioning what happened to a past friend with rabies, and Elaine goes grabs Kramer and calls him a hipster dufus.
• Aqua Boy: George's name given by Jerry. This was the same episode as the second hipster dufus episode. As mentioned, George lost his glasses (thought they were stolen) and has to wear his prescription swimming goggles.
• BBO (Beyond Body Odor): Term by George while riding in Jerry's car that was "infested" with BO from a valet. Jerry couldn't get rid of this smell and was forced to let it be stolen (although the show ends with the thief having second thoughts after a good smell of it). The smell attached itself to both Jerry and Elaine. Elaine refers to it as "rampant, mutant BO". She says "Jerry thinks it's an entity."

posted by Ken on 1:26 PM permalink and comments  

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Benjamin Franklin's Biography

 

I always admire creative inventions. That's one reason I admire Benjamin Franklin. I just finished his autobiography. Benjamin Franklin's biography is not only filled with creative inventions, but also with thought-provoking philosophy, statesmanship and great writing. He was also penny-wise, industrious, and health conscious.

Some things I didn't realize was that he lived much of his early life as a vegetarian for both moral and health reasons. He also was very much of a penny pincher. These combined in actions while in his early twenties when he worked at a printing press. As Benjamin Franklin wrote "I drank only water; the other workmen were great guzzlers of beer." He thought that beer was a waste of money and a a cause of a loss of productivity and health.

I also was impressed by Franklin's philosophical thinkings. He wasn't a big church worshiper as he admits "I seldom attended any public worship". However, he developed an appreciation for religion, it's usefulness in society, and how it helps morality. After being wronged by two non-religious friends, he came to the conclusion about atheism: "I began to suspect that this doctrine tho'it might be true, was not very useful."

posted by Ken on 1:17 PM permalink and comments  

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Monday, September 06, 2004

Why a Low-Cost Digital Camera is Good Enough

 

When buying a digital camera, the fundamental question should be to ask what will be the primary purpose. For me, photos are just used to remember vacations, holidays, and other pleasant occasions. Also, photos are used to share your experiences with friends and family. None of these require paper photos. They all can be done with digital photos, email, and online albums. The only exception would be if you intend to frame your photo and hang them in your home. If you don't intend to decorate your home with your photos, then in my opinion, you only need a low-cost, low-resolution digital camera. In addition, you shouldn't worry about printing them out on paper. Share the photos with online albums or with email. Remember, a photo is only to help you remember the occasions. You don't need paper for this. You may be use to paper photos, but it's only a habit. That paper isn't really helping you remember it any better.

If you constrain yourself to a low resolution digital camera, you can save yourself a bundle. The max resolution that I would recommend is 2MB. That's even plenty if you want to print a small photo. But for online-only, you can get by with a digital camera with only a 640 x 480 pixel resolution. That's less than 1MB resolution. For monitors, that resolution is all you need. You should be able to get digital cameras of this type for less than $100. Some other nice features that may add more to the price include 3x or more optical zoom, LCD display, 16MB or more on-camera memory, and USB connection. Some of these features might put the price over $100.

If you want the best price on digital cameras, my recommendation is to avoid getting the high-resolution digital cameras. Go with the cheap digital camera. If you really must have printed photos, you may want to consider higher resolution. But if you can convert your thinking into the internet age, you'll save money (cheaper camera, cheaper printer, no ink, no paper, no postage, etc.). In addition, you may be able to get some digital cameras with 640x480 resolution for under $50 which may be good enough for you and can also make a good digital camera for kids.

Your digital camera buying guide should begin with a good overview of all the digital camera terms. Dotphoto has really good digital camera information and overview that should help you get started in your search to find the best digital camera for your needs.

posted by Ken on 4:57 PM permalink and comments  

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Another Hurricane hits Florida

 

When it rains, it pours. I can't believe Florida got hit again by another hurricane. The meteorologist in me is astounded by this highly improbable circumstance. My meteorological explanation for this is that the wind patterns and high pressure systems that caused Charley still existed to help push Frances across Florida. If that theory is true, then there might be a good chance than Ivan may also hit Florida.

The Hurricane Center still has a long way to go before in being able to predict within the mile where the eye will hit. For both Charley and Frances, they were off about 80 miles within a day of landfall. On Thursday they started showing Frances' predicted path, and it showed the path crossing right over Orlando. My brother who lives near Orlando had an interesting thought about this. On Thursday, he thought this is actually good because that means it has practically no chance of directly hitting Orlando. Well, he was right, the Hurricane's eye passed about 80 miles south of Orlando.

posted by Ken on 3:53 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, August 22, 2004

Hurricane Charley

 

Remember George Castanza's ambition of pretending to be an architect. Well, my ambition is to pretend to be a meteorologist. Here's a little essay on Hurricane Charley:

Last week on August 13th, Hurricane Charley hit Florida. I've tracked hurricanes for several years. There were several interesting things about Charley:

• Bad Timing for Southwest and Central Florida - Usually, hurricanes miss Florida. If they come from the Atlantic, the Bermuda High and the Gulf Stream will take the hurricane north (either towards the Carolinas or east away from land). If hurricanes make it to the Gulf of Mexico, they also go north and hit the Florida panhandle or other northern parts of the Gulf of Mexico. Charley timed its entrance into the gulf with a rare August cold front. This front pulled Charley across Florida (from just north of Fort Myers through Orlando and Daytona).
• Cuba didn't weaken it any - When hurricanes cross over land, they usually weaken and will take days over water before they strengthen. Charley stayed together as it passed over Cuba's most narrow region. I was amazed as I tracked Charley on Friday August 13th. Early in the morning it started out with 110mph winds. By noon it had reached 125mph. Then by 2:00pm, it had reached 145mph winds.
• The cold front didn't weaken it any - Often if a cold front starts affecting a hurricane's course, it will weaken it. That didn't happen in this case.
• Central Region survived reasonably well - As would be expected, Charley weakened as it moved over Florida. However, the Orlando area did record gusts of over 100mph. There was a lot of minor damage with trees down and power outages. However, the vast majority of homes and buildings didn't have substantial damage. In fact, Disney World attractions re-opened the next day. The front that was pulling the hurricane did help it move quickly over Florida averaging between 20 and 30mph. This meant there would be less time that strong winds would last and less rain.
• 90% of the major hurricane damage is near its eye and near the coast - Hurricanes might seem big, but most of the severe wind is within 10 or 20 miles from the eye. The Southwest Florida towns like Punta Gorda had a lot of wind damage. However, there was no word of any significant damages 70 miles north in Sarasota. Also, even though the eye traveled across Orlando, there wasn't near the damage as was seen at Punta Gorda. 120 miles of land weakened the hurricane substantially.

Tracking Hurricane Charley made for an exciting August 13th. My family around Orlando had no significant damage to their homes, just a few fallen trees and about a day's worth of power outage. Even most manufactured homes weathered the storm well.

Central Florida was hit much harded in February 1998 by a line of tornados which were part of a cold front. Those tornados had winds of over 200mph. The tornados killed around 35 people in the Orlando area (more than Charley killed in all of Florida). The houses that were hit by those tornados were destroyed. The difference is that those tornados just hit a very small random areas. My dad lived just about 5 miles from one tornado had hit. That torndao destroyed dozens of homes and killed 11 people. At my dad's house, there was no damage. These tornados were F3's or F4's which are very rare for Florida.

posted by Ken on 2:17 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, August 01, 2004

Cell Phone Costs

 

I'm still living without a cell phone. The only case where I would want a cell phone would be for emergencies such as car breakdowns or accidents. I do carry an old cell phone in my car. I have no service, but I can use it to call 911. I use to keep its batteries charged, but now the batteries won't keep a charge. So I'll have to depend on hooking it up to the car's cigarette lighter.

I do see the value of a cell phone outside of emergency uses such using it to call for a tow, or to call a friend for something important. Such a plan wouldn't require more than an hour of talk time per year. The best option that I've seen for this is the prepaid plans. The cheapest prepaid plan for very low usage is the $20 for 3 months. After 3 months, you have to recharge or else you will lose the service. So this prepaid plan comes out to about $80 per year or about $7 per month.

I still think there should be a plan that could cost less. Someone who only wants to use the cell for emergencies or near-emergency occassions should have cheaper alternatives. I wish number cloning could be done. This would allow people to share a cell number. This would cause complications if these people used the phone a lot causing contention on both outgoing and incoming calls. But if these people plan to just use about an hour a year, there shouldn't be any problem. This would allow the yearly cost to be shared across several people.

And there lies the problem. There's no incentive to the cell phone providers in offering such a service. They much prefer the $30/month or more cell phone plans. I believe cell phone cloning is illegal. There have been illegal incidents of cloning in which someone steals a cell phone id and uses that to make calls that are charged to the owner of the original phone without their permission. This of course should be illegal. But why should cloning be illegal if it is done with the owner's permission. If the cell phone owner agrees to have his phone cloned to share the costs, that should be allowed.

I have a feeling cell phone cloning won't be gaining popularity as a legitmate consumer tool to cut costs any time soon. I think my best bet is further cost reductions on prepaid plans. I think if they can cut the costs to $10 for 3 months, I may then take the leap and buy into a cell phone prepaid plan.

posted by Ken on 1:28 PM permalink and comments  

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2004 Election

 

Watched much of the Democratic National Convention this week. Fortunately, PBS had full coverage (the only non-cable station to have full coverage). One thing that I'm still not sure about is if John Kerry really served in Vietnam. No one seemed to bring this up during the convention.... Actually, even someone who didn't speak any English probably could have figured that out during this convention. Some interesting quotes:

During the Vietnam War, many young men, including the current President, the Vice President and me, could have gone to Vietnam and didn't -Bill Clinton (glad he didn't forget himself)

You cannot run. You cannot hide. We will destroy you -John Edwards (His message to the terrorists in what seemed to be an Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonation.)

I'm John Kerry, and I'm reporting for duty -John Kerry (Very witty opening line)

As someone who is open minded, I'll try to watch all of the Republican Convention. I'm probably one of those who could be best labeled an independent. I have concerns with both parties. I still think it would be good for the nation if there were a strong third party. A party that would include the social liberalism and economic self reliance. The closest thing to such a party is the Libertarian party.

I checked out the website of Michael Badnarik, the Libertarian candidate for President. The website looked good. Plus it had a lot of content. But when I looked through Badnarik's biography, I wasn't impressed. The highest public office that he has held is vice president of his college dormitory. Surely, they can get a candidate with more experience than that. He would be lucky to win a city councilman position in a small city.

I also looked over the campaign websites of several Libertarian candidates for Texas and local offices. Very few had held any public offices. I don't see the Libertarians making any advances this year.

Their best bet for the future would be if Ron Paul would run for President for the Libertarians. He would likely still get fewer votes than Ross Perot in 92. But more people would give him and the party a more serious look.

Also, like Ron Paul, Libertarians should consider running for local positions like city councilman in one of the two major parties. Like Paul, they don't have to give up on their beliefs. This can provide them with important experience and give credence to them as future Libertarian candidates.

The Libertarians do have one plan for a more successful future and that is the Free State Project. This project is trying to get around 20 thousand Libertarians to move to the state of New Hampshire where they could get enough candidates and voters to be able to get into state government. Then they hope to have a serious hand in governing where they can showcase their political philosophies in a real environment. And then they would be able to have presidential candidates with more public office experience than a VP of a college dormitory. It will be interesting to watch.

posted by Ken on 12:58 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, June 13, 2004

 

Never Seen Before Seinfeld

A couple months ago I watched another Seinfeld rerun that I actually had never seen before. Since I've been watching Seinfeld for at least 10 years, this doesn't happen too often. It was a pretty good episode, so I don't know why it hasn't been played more. Seems like there are episodes that get played over and over while other episodes get hardly any playing.

The main plot of this episode was Elaine's secret sexy message that she left on Jerry's tape as it was recording one of his standup routines. She meant it as a joke, but Jerry, George, and Kramer were mesmerized by it, and Jerry tried to track down this mystery woman. Elaine lets George in on the secret, which caused George to start thinking he was falling in love with Elaine. At the end, George finally tells Jerry about the tape and his feelings. Kramer also learns the truth about the tape. Elaine then realizes that her powers of erotic talk were probably too strong. The other two minor plots were George's purchase of a Chinese hair growth cream and Kramer's new camcorder.

This was the only episode that I remember George getting the hots for Elaine. Needless to say, this was a little disturbing to both Jerry and Elaine. I guess the writers had George come to his senses, and forget about such a relationship. Perhaps that's why this episode was never shown much. It may have been a little disturbing for many people...

But it was a solid and funny episode, and I'm glad I finally saw it.

Isosceles Kramer

One Seinfeld classic that was on a week or two ago was the one where they were picking up an engagement gift for the Drake (Got to love the Drake), and Kramer talks George into parking in a handicap spot. When they return from shopping, they learn that a lady in a wheelchair was hurt when she was trying to get around their car (Incidentally, Mimi from Drew Carey played a shoppper who informed Jerry of what happened.) A mob then proceeded to trash George's car, the car he borrowed from his father.

Kramer feels sorry for the woman, visits her in the hospital, and falls in love with her. He then talks George into pitching in for a new wheelchair for her. Meanwhile, Jerry and Elaine learn that the Drake and his fiancee are breaking up. Their gift, a big screen TV, was not returned and instead the fiancee gives it away.

Two little interesting pieces from this episode:

First, at the start, somehow Jerry and Kramer start talking about isosceles triangles, and Kramer mentions how he loves the name:

I love the name Isosceles. If I had a kid, I would name him Isosceles Kramer.

I guess this stuck into my mind since I've been studying names (see my posts from last year). It does follow at least one of my naming rules: uniqueness. However, it has too many syllables. That kid's nickname would likely be Iso or something strange like that. So I can't give the name Isosceles my stamp of approval.

BTW, I've given some more thought on George's favorite name, Seven. At first, I thought it was pretty close to a good name. However, it does have a major flaw that I didn't see back then. It's too close to the very common name Steven. Add a T and you have Steven. Too many people would think someone just accidentally left off the T. Also, people who quickly glanced at the name, might see Steven and not Seven.

Back to the wheelchair episode, the other little interesting thing in this episode was that this wheelchair lady broke up with Kramer. Kramer tells Jerry that she called him a hipster dufus. It's just one of many tiny humorous sayings that came out of the series.

President's Funeral and a Civil War Widow

President Reagan's death and funeral was given a lot of publicity this week. It was the last state funeral for a president since LBJ in January 1973. Since then, the only ex-president who has passed away has been Nixon. I suppose he didn't deserve a state funeral. As I was looking back at the history of presidents, I noticed Truman died just a month before LBJ on December 26, 1972. I hope Truman also received a state funeral. I would put Truman above LBJ on the list of top presidents.

Another interesting person died in the last month. It was the last widow of the Confederate Army. When I first heard this on the news, I was in disbelief. The Civil War ended almost 140 years ago. How could anyone connected to that war still be alive at the start of 2004?

It turns out that this women was 21 when she married this Civil War veteran in 1928. The man was 81 at the time of marriage. She was 97 this year when she died. So yes, she was a Civil War widow. Believe it or not!

posted by Ken on 3:06 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, May 16, 2004

 

Making Money with CafePress?

When Ricky Williams won the Heisman trophy back in the 90's, there was a T-shirt that got famous in Texas. It was an ingenious design that was sold outside of the typical stores since it wasn't an officially sanctioned Longhorn item. However, it didn't infringe on any trademarks. It was a silhouette of a football player in the Heisman pose with dreadlocks (Williams was famous in Texas for both his dreadlocks and his Heisman).

Since then, I've been thinking of similar creative opportunities. Back in the 90's, you had to be not only creative, but also very industrious to get an idea to the marketplace. Now it's a lot easier. There's a website called CafePress that I've used to try to sell some of my ideas. The nice thing about CafePress is that you can upload a design and start selling it on all kinds of clothes with no startup fee. Cafepress sets a base price for all of its items. You can then set the selling price above the base price for a profit. The only problem is that they have pretty high base prices. Also, there's a minimum level that you have to make in your profits before CafePress will send you a check. But for someone that has a creative and cheap side, this is great site.

I'm very glad that it doesn't cost anything to create a CafePress store since it's very hard to make a sale. I've tried twice without much luck. Albeit, my ideas were no where close to the Ricky Williams T-shirt. But I was hoping for a little better luck.

My first idea was trying to capitalize on San Antonio's 2003 NBA championship and also David Robinson's retirement. I wanted to combine San Antonio's victory, David Robinson's "The Admiral" fame, and Duncan and Robinson's status as the twin towers. At the same time I wanted to make sure not to infringe on any of the NBA trademarks. Here's the store on CafePress.

After last Thursday's amazing Laker victory, I came up with another idea. The Lakers pulled off the most amazing last second shot that I've ever seen. And that was after an amazing shot Tim Duncan made in the last 5.4 seconds in which he shot above Shaq at the top of the key. The shot went in and there was only 0.4 seconds left on the clock for LA. Surely, 0.4 seconds isn't enough time to do anything. Well, Peyton did a super pass right to Derek Fisher who did an amazing twist, jump, and shot in one quick motion. And sure enough, it left his hands before the 0.4 seconds finished. Absolutely amazing.

Although I'm a Spurs fan, I saw an opportunity here. I thought there should be 10,000's of serious Laker fans and perhaps 1000's of Derek Fisher fans. Seems like there could be demand for a memento of this incredible ending. Well, I thought of this elegantly simple way to memorialize this. A big bold number 0.4 on a shirt, cap or bumper sticker could be a perfect symbol to memorialize this feat for true LA fans or Derek Fisher fans. Another nice thing about this is that there is no trademark violation.

Well, I created the store ZeroPointFour on CafePress on Friday morning. I did a few advertising attempts, and waited. Well, looks like this may not be any better than last year's attempt. Oh Well... Maybe one of these days, one of my creative ideas will spread like wild fire on the net. I have a feeling it's a long shot. I guess it's my version of a lottery...

posted by Ken on 3:19 PM permalink and comments  

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Monday, May 10, 2004

 

The Next Google?

One interesting bit of news over the last month is that Google is going public. One thing I find amazing about Google is how it was able to become so dominant. Back in the 90's, when Yahoo was the king of search engines, who would have thought a new company could come in and take over. Also, Yahoo wasn't the only one. There were also tons of others such as excite, lycos, altavista, etc.

But with a truely better search technology, easy and simple interface, and a sensible revenue model, they succeeded even when they came late to the search engine business. I believe there are many Google's to be made in the next 10 years on the internet. Here are some of my guesses about businesses that could be the next Google.

• Digital Marketplace - One area of the web that is just barely starting to grow is the digital marketplace. This is a place that makes it easy for people to buy and sell their digital content such as music, books, videos, and images. The web should significantly lower the cost of these items to people in two ways. First, the web provides a much more efficient way of delivering these items: no manufacturing, no physical delivery. Second, it helps to reduce the middlemen like the studios and publishers.

  Lulu.com is one example of a digital marketplace provider. Payloadz.com is another. Both seem pretty small now, but in the next few years, I see these businesses growing. There still is the challenge to filter out the low quality content and highlight the quality.

• Education - Seems like tuition rates are in a never ending spiral upward, growing faster than inflation. With the web, this should end. Perhaps for public schools (K through 12), the web's impact may not be huge. But for college and adult education, the web should help dramatically. For adults, I believe the classical teaching environment awith a small instructor led class is very cost inefficient. Pure online classes should be able to greatly reduce the costs without affecting the learning. There might be occasional offline activities for tests. But most of the class could be implemented with online class syllabus, notes, message boards, web logs, videos, etc.

  In addition to the accredited education courses, I think there's opportunity for informal online education. I imagine it like a book club that would concentrate on non fiction. It could be similar to a message forum but would be time limited and follow a syllabus. Student notes could consist of web logs that would not only function as personal notes but also to help others in comprehending the material. This is just one idea. I see a lot of growth in online education over the next several years.

• Classifieds - Ebay is now the undisputed leader in auctions. They also have areas that are a lot like classifieds in which a set price can be placed on an item for a specific city. Also, most newspapers are setting up online classifieds to complement their paper versions. There are also many niche classified sites that exist for dating, cars, real estate.

  Newspapers should be worried. One thing to consider is that I can get a free email account just about anywhere on the web which allows me to keep megabytes of information almost indefinitely. Also similar, free blog services exist everywhere which allow posting of megabytes of info. So for classifieds, why pay for posting a few hundred bytes of info that lasts only a couple of days? Free online classifieds should be able to allow at least as much space as email and blogs. People can post pictures of what they are selling and detailed descriptions. The classified sites should be able to provide extensive search capability to allow people to find exactly what they are looking for. These things should make online classifieds much more useful than offline newspaper classifieds.

  To fund classifieds, advertising should be effective. It should be no less effective than advertising done in free email or blog services. And the cost of storage, servers, and bandwidth is constantly decreasing. Not only should newspapers be worried, but also ebay should be worried. I see a lot of opportunity in this. One interesting free classified site is craigslist which provides free classified services for all non-employment categories. It also has a lot of other great community features.

• Politics - The web seems to be the perfect place to educate people about political issues. Candidates should no longer have to pay huge sums to buy TV, radio, newspaper commercials. Ideally, a site would be available where people could go and learn about the issues. Discussion forums could exist that allow people to probe into the issues. The site could allow people to get a quick and fair view into the candidates and the issues, plus, it could allow people to dive down into the issues to really understand them. All this could be done very cheaply with the web. There is one site that is something like this, but it still has a long way to go, especially on local politics. It's Project Vote Smart.

  Candidates are starting to use the web more effectively, but there is still a long way to go. I believe every political leader or candidate should have their own blog where they describe the issues, philosophies, and policies. The national ones like Dean and Kerry already have ones (although most entries are done by their aids). More local candidates need to have them, and the majority of entries should be by them, not their aids. They should consider their blogs not only as a campaign tool but also as an education tool that can make the political issues interesting.

Google has shown that there is a lot of room for growth on the internet, even in areas that you might assume are pretty crowded. It'll be interesting to see who'll be the next Google.

posted by Ken on 5:45 AM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, March 28, 2004

 

The Matrix, Evil, and Violence

Finally saw the first Matrix. Although there were a few things about the movie that I didn't like, the basic plot was mind-blowing. Reality doesn't seem the same after seeing this movie. I also really liked the acting of Laurence Fishburne (who played Morpheus) and Hugo Weaving (who played Agent Smith). Fishburne's voice was perfect for Morpheus.

Sometimes the web seems like the Matrix, a virtual reality that can take a life of its own. On a more disturbing thought, I was wondering if terrorists picture themselves similar to Morpheus' team. I'm not saying they get their inspiration from science fiction. My question is about the general feeling or perception that exists. Is it similar to what existed in the movie?

For example, in the movie, Morpheus had this interesting quote as he was explaining the Matrix to Neo:

Most of these people are not ready to be unplugged, and many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.

Wonder if the terrorist leaders build this same sense of reality where they see an epic war between their idea of good and evil. Perhaps they paint democracy, capitalism, and America as the "system", an evil "matrix" of decadence, ungodliness, etc. Perhaps they look at Americans as "so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it."

I want to make the point that I in no way sympathize with terrorists nor claim the movie The Matrix supports terrorism in any way. I just want to share my feelings on similarities in mentalities that might exist. This is part of what I found interesting about the movie.

What I didn't find interesting about the movie was the violence. The stunts where the characters were breaking the perceived physical barriers were interesting. But couldn't those powers be used in nonviolent methods?

I suppose for the typical movie audience, it's a lot "cooler" if heros and villains fight epic battles with kung fu, light sabers, machine guns, etc. I don't think most movies glorify violence. But they certainly don't do anything to glorify nonviolent methods.

Can good win over evil without violence? Could the USA have been formed without the Revolutionary War? Could slavery have been ended without the Civil War? Could Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan been stopped without World War II?

One thing that interests me is how life was in France in the 1940's under the Nazi regime. Under a Nazi regime, is terrorism justified? Of course, most of the French had no idea of the atrocites that were being carried out by the Nazis against the Jews and others. So the Nazi regime probably didn't look nearly as evil then as we see it today. So from their perspective, terrorism probably wouldn't seem justified. What would be the proper way to fight the Nazi regime back then. I guess you could always provide assistance to the British and Americans. But what if the British also lost and America never got into the war? What then? Could nonviolent resistance make a difference?

The physical fighting is not what is interesting. It's the decision about when to fight, why to fight and how to fight that is interesting. For movies, instead of more battles with kung fu, guns, and swords, I would like to see more epic battles that go on in the minds of people.

posted by Ken on 2:48 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, February 15, 2004

 

Auto Extended Warranty

My factory warranty for my Chevrolet expired this week. I finally made the decision to get an extended warranty. The dealership's extended warranty was quite pathetic. It only insured the car for 2 more years. I was a little worried about getting an extended warranty from the internet. Never sure if those companies are reputable and will stay in business over the years. I did find one that seemed to be good deal and seemed to be from a reputable company.

One thing I noticed during the warranty search was how hard it is to find useful information on companies. When searching google, there seems to be two main places where you can get information. The first are affiliate sites. The problem with these sites is that they get a commission if they lead you to a warranty site and you make a purchase. So you can't really trust them in giving you unbias information. There's no incentive for them to say anything bad about the company.

The other place where I found a little information are discussion forums. Often someone will ask a question or give their opinions or personal experience about one of these companies. At least this information is usually unbiased. But there are only small pieces of information, nothing too useful. There are a few sites like epinions.com that provide a very innovative forum to view others' opinions on companies and products. However, they didn't have any reviews of extended car warranty companies.

I did find one way to get some bit of relevant information about the warranty companies. Now a days, each city or region has a local better business bureau which has its database online and freely accessible. I was able to check out their ratings on several warranty companies. Of course this only provides a little bit of information, but at least you can see if there are any red flags on their service. The BBB will log complaints against the company and provide a "satisfactory" or "unsatisfactory" recommendation of the business. There are also web-only versions of the local BBBs that can also be helpful. It never hurts to have more information.

I've listed some links to local better busines bureaus entries on several extended auto warranty companies. Unlike affiliates, my information is totally unbiased, just the facts:

• WarrantyDirect
  Report from bbbnewyork.org
  BBBOnLine Report
• Warranty Acceptance Corporation - My dad almost purchased a plan from this company. They must have some good brochures. When I checked their web site, half of it was under construction. When I checked their report on the local BBB, they had a lot of complaints. Better Business Bureau of South Alabama (bbbsouthal.org)
  warrantyacceptancecorp.com web site
• 1sourcewarranty.com
  Report from denver.bbb.org

Snow in Austin

We had the most snow in Austin yesterday than any day since the mid 80's, but it wasn't too impressive. Officially, we had 1.6 inches. At my apartment, there was just a little snow on the cars and on the grass and trees. Nothing stuck to the roads. It was nothing like what I remember back up in Maryland. I remember one winter day a few decades ago when we got around two feet of snow. As a young boy at that time, it was a very pleasant surprise. Major snowfalls weren't too common where I lived in Maryland.

Motorola Marathon

The Motorola Marathon was held in Austin today. Luckily, it wasn't yesterday or the day before. Yesterday was the snow. The day before we had a cold rain for most of the day. This day was perfect. It was a little cold in the early morning, but it was nice and sunny.

I didn't run the marathon, but instead assisted a coworker who ran the full 26.2 miles. Couldn't believe how much they charge these days for the registration fee. It's 100 dollars! ($80 for early registration). But there were thousands of runners. There's something about a challenge that lures people. Whether it's climbing a mountain, flying around the world, hiking to the south pole, sailing across the ocean, or running an incredible distance, there will always be people seeking the challenge and willing to pay to try it. I bet there is a lot of money to be made here. Running has been around for awhile. There's got to be some other new athletic challenges that people would want to attempt.

There was one interesting thing I observed as a spectator in this marathon. In the mix of spectators who were cheering the runners, a lone Howard Dean supporter was holding a Dean sign. This has to be a dedicated supporter who doesn't give up easily. Perhaps if the marathon was a few weeks ago before all of the wins by Kerry, a sign might seem useful. But now, I'm afraid it's not going to help much. And even if it were still a very close race, how much difference do political signs make anyway? How many people say: "Wow, what a sign, he must be worth voting for"? I never really understood political signs. If you are going to hold a political sign during a marathon, why not be a little creative with your sign. How about something like: "A vote for Dean is a vote for good American jobs and affordable marathons"?

posted by Ken on 3:07 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, February 08, 2004

 

Bizarre Super Bowl Moment

New England's last second victory over Carolina topped off a great Super Bowl. There were many odd moments at the bowl this year: the Janet Jackson incident, the streaker, and some interesting ads. But the strangest thing in my opinion was from a new Viagra competitor ad. This ad was from Cialis, supposedly a better ED medication. There was nothing all that interesting with this commercial until it started listing some warnings concerning the medication such as avoidance of alcohol and possible side effects. It then gave this very bizarre warning:

Erections lasting longer than four hours, though rare, require immediate medical help

At first I wasn't sure if this was an intentional effort to amuze or just one of the many typical warnings that are listed at the end of an ad for a prescription medication. In the last week, I've seen this commercial a few other times. Also, I've seen a few commentaries on this. So it seems it's not intended to be amuzing.

My question about this warning is how would someone request medical help if this should occur? It would make for a quite bizarre call to 911. Wonder how the person answering the 911 calls would respond? And what would be the medical procedures to assist the man? Very, very bizarre....

Biographies

After buying 5 books two weeks ago covering 21 biographies, I've started with the biography of George Washington by Marcus Cunliffe. I'm slowly but surely making my way through this book, reading a little before bed each night.

What interests me about historical biographies are the circumstances that create a great person. Most all of the great people of the past had to overcome tragedies, self doubt, fear, and other issues. Also interesting are the important decisions that these famous people made, decisions that impacted history for hundreds of years.

In Washington's case, there was the decision to support the colonies over England. As the rebel movement grew, Washington tended to take the middle of the road mood. Some of his friends were loyalists and ended up leaving the colonies. Washington's decision to support the colonies seems to be heavily based on his loyalty to Virginia. It was where he grew up and was the center of his life. Interesting that this seems to be a similar decision making process that Robert E. Lee made at the start of the American Civil War.

Another interesting decision was the decision by the Continental Congress to appoint George Washington as the commander of the Continental Army. And even more interesting was Washington's decision to agree to this. Washington had won respect of many of the delegates. Also, he was from a strategically important colony outside of New England which would help build support for the war through out the colonies. However, Washington didn't have all that much military experience. His service was limited to some frontier warfare during the French and Indian War. He didn't lead at any high positions where strategic war lessons could be learned. There were many others available who had more experience for this position. Nevertheless, the Congress made the decision, and Washington accepted.

These types of decisions seem common to all people. Accepting a challenge to take on a difficult task is something that occurs in many people's lives. The person may be poorly prepared for such tasks, but he takes on the challenge, learns, and perseveres. This willingness is a trait common in many of the great historical figures of the past.

I'm about a third of the way through this book. One reason I like writing about what I read is it helps me better appreciate the book and it helps me remember it. I guess it's little bit like taking notes in school many years ago, but without the worries of grades.

posted by Ken on 3:02 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, January 25, 2004

 

Jerry Seinfeld's blog?

As I was watching a Seinfeld rerun the other day, I thought whether someone like the real Jerry Seinfeld would have a blog. Seems like it could be a good forum for bigtime comedians who want to do comedy incognito. Once some comedian becomes rich and famous, there will always be a lot of expectations when that comedian performs. On one hand there would be a lot pressure to meet expectations. On the other hand, you are treated like a king. People love you no matter how you perform.

If you don't have to worry about money, having a comedy blog could perhaps be interesting for someone like Seinfeld. And by keeping your real identity secret, there's no pressure. You just do what you love: create comedy. A blog definitely doesn't have the personal and live connection of stand-up comedy. But there are still a lot of feedback mechanisms like comment tools that allow authors to make some connection with the online audience. So keep a lookout for that blog by a seemingly noname with really good observational humor that has an amazing way of going full circle.

Whatever happened to the Anthrax Investigation?

Seems like the perpetrator of those anthrax attacks over two years ago may never be found. Every now and then over the last year there have been a few reports of the investigation. Sure seems like there has not been much progress.

Luckily, there haven't been any new attacks. Seems like the perpetrator(s) have either given up or went into permanent hiding. Based on what I heard about the investigation, the anthrax spores came from US labs based on DNA analysis. Seems like some scientist would be the most likely perpetrator. The question is: what would be his or her motiviation for such an attack.

One clue regarding the motivation is when these attacks occurred. It was a month or so after 9/11. Why would someone conduct an anthrax attack then? Someone who's really possessed with hate would probably keep attacking like what Ted Kaczynski did. Makes me wonder if there wasn't some other motivation. Perhaps he's a lone war hawk scientist who wanted to show the US the threat of anthrax and perhaps to help build a case for going into Iraq. I remember when Colin Powell described how much damage a small sample of anthrax did in the US when he was debating the Iraqi resolutions at the UN. One of the most deadly anthrax letters was sent to the House democratic leader. It demonstrated the danger of anthrax (a WMD that Iraq was known to possess.) I doubt there was any conspiracy, but I can see the possibility of a lone madman with an extreme neoconservative agenda.

"If we don't make a mistake, what a paradise we could make of this world"

The heading was a quote from President Truman in the movie "Truman". I just finished watching this 1999 movie on DVD staring Gary Sinise. It was a great movie. His involvement with the A-bomb was most interesting. He wasn't informed of the Manhattan project until he became President. He soon had to decide what to do with it.

Many today consider the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to be an atrocity. But at the time, such atrocities didn't seem so extreme. Fire bombing campaigns of Tokyo and Dresden had killed tens of thousands of civilians. Truman's advisors had estimated the atomic bombing would kill a similar number. Everyone back then seemed totally committed to a complete and unconditional surrender by the Japanese. It was anticipated that the Japanese were willing to fight long and hard. So the alternative to the A-bomb also meant death for tens of thousands of Japanese and Americans. So from that perspective, I think Truman made the decision to drop the A-bombs. At that time, I don't think he fully understood the long term ramifications.

Later during the Korean war, Truman faced another hard question: should he follow MacArthur's advice and turn the war into a total war using A-bombs against China if needed. MacArthur seemed to be heading that way whether Truman approved or not. Truman did not want world war III and made the very tough decision to relieve MacArthur. It was a decision that was very unpopluar in the congress and in the country, but it likely prevented a world war and more dropping of nuclear bombs. Interesting that North Korea is still a threat, and now they have nuclear bombs themselves (or are very close). So some may think MacArthur's advice would have been the best long term decision. But after World War II, presidents have realized that a total war is no longer a viable solution. A mistake that leads us to a total war is a mistake with unimaginable costs. This brings me back to Truman's quote "If we don't make a mistake, what a paradise we could make of this world."

Got Carried Away

I always enjoyed historical biographies. The movie Truman was just one of many that I've seen. A few weeks ago, I watched the documentary "Abraham and Mary Lincoln" on PBS. Well this weekend, I visited Half Price Books. As I was looking around, I found these Reader's Digest series of great biographies. Five books cover 21 world and American historical figures. At first I was trying to decide which one of the 5 books I should buy. But finally, I just decided to buy all five. Pretty big spender you say? Well, luckily, these books were all in the one dollar area. So I got all 5 books (about 3000 pages in all) for only $5.41 (after tax), and thereby, maintained the honor of this website.

Beware of the Decade-Old Pants

As you may suspect, I'm a believer of getting my money's worth of all things including clothes. Well that can be dangerous. I had these slacks that I've been wearing for about 10 years. The pants have held up well. The only problem had been the pockets which were getting some holes. I had to start putting my keys in the right pocket since the left pocket was developing a sizable hole. But besides that, the external look of the pants was fine. However, recently, I began to have a little problem with the zipper. I didn't think much about it until last Thursday while at the restroom at work. All of a sudden the barn door wouldn't close. The zipper had gone bad. Luckily, I could arrange the pants so nothing would show as long as I was careful. Also luckily, I didn't have a presentation to give. I made it home without an incident. So it looks like I will now retire those slacks. It was ten years of solid performance. Sadly, often the end comes quickly and is rarely honorable: maybe a little like MacArthur's retirement...

One last interesting note: The guy that played MacArthur in "Truman" was the same guy who played Kruger in Seinfeld (George's boss for awhile). The actor's name is Daniel von Bargen. More info can be found at imdb.com.

posted by Ken on 3:46 PM permalink and comments  

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Saturday, January 17, 2004

 

When Does a Religion Become a Cult?

Last weekend, two ladies knocked on my door. One was around 50 and other may have been her daughter. The older one started talking about God and handed me this pamphlet. I quickly and graciously accepted and let them go their way. It's been so long since I was visited that I didn't immediately recognize that the two ladies were Jehovah Witness followers. This became apparent as I glanced through the pamphlet.

I can't argue over a religion's belief in God or the Bible. But when a religion makes requirements that can put ones life at risk, it then becomes more of a cult rather than a religion. By not allowing blood transfusions or blood donations, Jehovah Witnesses become more of a cult than a religion. They are putting their members at risk. They are hurting society by reducing the blood donations.

I suppose this criteria of judging a religion can sometimes be debatable. Many religions often have requirements that can be questionable from a purely scientific point of view. Birth control is one example. Birth control makes very good sense from a scientific point of view about ensuring sensible family planning and higher standards of living in society. However, avoiding birth control doesn't in itself puts lives at risk. It makes it harder to do responsible family planning. But it doesn't make it impossible. On the other hand, refusing blood transfusions does directly put one at risk of an unnecessary early death.

My Response to the Jehovah Witnesses

So this thinking about Jehovah Witnesses motivated me to give blood this week. The blood and tissue center had another blood drive at my work site last Thursday. It's been six months since my last donation. I wonder who holds the record for the most blood donated in a life? I don't think it's safe to give more than four times a year. So if someone gave four times a year for 50 years that would be 25 gallons. That would be impressive. I don't think I'll plan for this. I'm willing to bet that in 10 years, they will have perfected synthetic blood and won't require donations any more. So it's probably not worth striving for 25 gallons. Nonetheless, I plan to keeping giving. I think I'll create a pamphlet about this, and give it to the next Jehovah Witness that comes to my door.

Some Freebie Ideas About Donating

One of the little freebies you get after giving blood are some snacks and drinks that they provide to help get your energy back and prevent fainting after the donation. Also, they sometimes give away T-shirts (although they didn't have any this time.) I was thinking about keeping that arm band that they use to cover the place where they draw the blood. Then the next time I happen to walk by a blood drive, I'll sneak in with the arm band and take advantage of the snacks. Then again, it's probably better that I just give blood. Besides, I never just happen to walk by a blood drive. So I think I'll go ahead and throw away that arm band...

posted by Ken on 5:17 AM permalink and comments  

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Tuesday, December 30, 2003

 

Christmas - Airfares, Decoration Innovation, and Carol of the Bells

Another Christmas came and went. I did my usual trek to Florida to visit family. I had to pay more for my flight this year. The best I could find for round trip was $324 from Delta. Last year I was able to book a trip for $236 from Continental. For 2001 Christmas, I was able to get a round trip ticket for $127, the cheapest Texas to Florida fair that I was ever able to get. Since that was just after 9/11, I guess that was to be expected. I actually got lucky that year. Originally, the best fare I could get was with American Airlines for $234. But in early December, they informed me that they had to make an adjustment to my schedule. Because of the changes, they allowed me to cancel with a full refund. Before canceling, I booked this super low fare with Southwest.

Around my Father's neighborhood, I noticed a lot of new Christmas decorations such as inflatable Santas/snowmen and spiral light Christmas trees. Also many people had those now common icicle lights. In the last ten years, there seems to have been a lot of decoration innovation. It has almost been as impressive as chip technology. I wonder if there's a Moore's law for Christmas decorations. Just think what our neighborhoods will look like in Christmas 2010...

Only heard my favorite Christmas carol ("Carol of the Bells") a few times. I heard a few versions of this such as "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24" by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I haven't heard any versions of "Carol of the Bells" that I didn't like. Luckily, I haven't heard any jazz, country or Jamaican versions. I'm not sure exactly why I like it. It has sort of a climatic feel, like my favorite rock song "Sweet Madam Blue" or another song I like, Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die". I found a few bits of history about this song here.

I was trying to think of the Seinfeld Christmas episodes. The only ones that come to mind are the Festivus one and the nipple one where Elaine mails out Christmas cards with her picture taken by Kramer that accidentally shows a nipple. I don't think they ever had any heavy Christmas shows like some sitcoms. In fact, I don't think they had any episodes concentrating heavily on any holiday. I think it was probably for the best. That way it never got too sentimental. They did a good job at keeping the series away from serious topics or soapish relationships. I'm glad they did.

Perpetuation of the Species

Also over the holidays I saw the movie "Cheaper by the Dozen" staring Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt. It was a family type of movie that was pretty good. Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt play the parents of 12 children who try to find a balance between careers and family.

This movie had me thinking about the reasons for wanting a family (large or small): perpetuation of the species, parental instincts, religious duty, civic duty, family duty, loneliness, love. So far, none of these have been enough for me.

Humans are the first species that can actually decide about having children or not. Luckily, most humans still decide to have children. It does seem as standards of living increase, the family size on average does go down. I guess some of this has to do with better access to birth control. But I wonder if it's more related to education and higher logical thinking.

Also, I wonder if you disregard education and standards of living, does average family size decrease when there is less religion? Seems like religious people will use less birth control and avoid abortion which should increase family size. But disregarding this, other factors seem like it should increase family size like faith and religious duty.

This reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where Kramer falls in love with Jerry's girlfriend, Pam. It turned out that Pam didn't want children. Also in this episode, Elaine questions her want for children. She meets a man who also admits to not wanting children. I think the line "perpetuation of the species" was a line that Jerry gave to Elaine when they talked about this question.

It seems Seinfeld is the longest running sitcom where none of the main characters were the father or mother of a child during some point in the series. Was this one more example of their selfishness? Is not wanting children selfish?...

Red Lights and When "To Go"

Last month I had some interesting experiences with red lights.

There's this one traffic light that I go through every Saturday morning between jogging and Starbucks. The first problem happened one Saturday morning as I was stopped at that light waiting for it to turn green. I was first in line and as I was waiting, a fire truck came from behind blaring its sirens. There were a few cars beside and behind me. It seemed that it needed to go through the intersection, so I looked both ways for clearing, and went through the red light. As I got through the intersection, I pulled to the side and looked in my rear view mirror. The fire truck ended up taking a right at the intersection in the side lane so I didn't need to run the red light after all. Then I remembered the cameras at the intersection. I'm not sure if those cameras are to ticket red light runners or for traffic monitoring. That got me nervous, but it's been over a month and no ticket has appeared in my mail. I think I did the right thing, but it might not look that way in the cameras...

The other problem at this light is that in the last few weeks it has been taking way too long to turn green. The traffic around 8:00am on a Saturday is very minimal. There's no reason why that light should stay red for more then one or two minutes. Twice it has taken around 5 minutes. Both times there were several cars waiting so it shouldn't have been a case of the sensor not being triggered. In these cases, however, I wasn't the first in line so I didn't have to decide whether to run the light or not. There's been construction around this intersection so I guess it's timing must have gotten off. No one in front of me made the decision to run it.

This brings up the interesting question of how long you should wait for a light to turn green. If the intersection is not busy and the light is not turning green, what should a motorist do? I wonder what the law says about this. This could be another case where there could be a legitimate reason for running a red light. I suppose one thing that could be done to be totally safe from a ticket is to take a right at the light and then do a u-turn.

Getting caught while doing something fairly innocent reminds me of the Seinfeld episode in which the Seinfeld team can't find their car in a mall parking garage. As Jerry and Kramer were walking around in there, Jerry had to use the facilities. Kramer warned Jerry of the bad health consequences of holding it in and convinced him to go in the corner of the garage. Jerry finally conceded and tried to discreetly do his business. As he finished, the garage police just happened to catch him.

Like Jerry, I thought I had a good reason to "break the rules", but the police saw it differently. However, I've been lucky. So far it looks like I got away with no ticket.

posted by Ken on 3:09 PM permalink and comments  

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Wednesday, November 26, 2003

 

The Grassy Knoll

Last week was the 40th anniversary of JFK's assassination. They had a bunch of JFK specials on TV. One on ABC detailed the history behind the assassination, Lee Harvey Oswald, and all the conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories abound. I remember when I stayed in Dallas early this year. I happened to have a hotel at the Hyatt overlooking the grassy knoll and the book repository. It was amazing how much of a landmark this has become. Guys walk the street around there telling stories and selling books on the assassination.

Personally, I don't give conspiracy theories much weight. They may be interesting, but the evidence is shaky. These types of conspiracies are what I consider "extraordinary claims", and in the words of Carl Sagan, "extraordinary claims, require extraordinary evidence." Although Carl Sagan was usually referring to alien life, many other "extraordinary claims" exist such as these conspiracy theories.

Also last week, PBS had a great documentary series on the Kennedys that started with Joseph Kennedy and ended with Ted Kennedy's failed 1980 run for the President (web site link). The family definitely had more tragedy than the average family. JFK's oldest brother was killed in World War II and his older sister was killed in a plane crash after the War. Another one of his sisters was quietly moved into a mental hospital after a failed lubotomy that was intended to improve her mild retardation. In the sixties, Ted barely survived a plane crash early in his Senate career. Then of course the assassinations of John and Robert. The family was rich and powerful, but that can only do so much.

Coincidentally, I happened to borrow a DVD of the movie "In the Line of Fire" from a friend a few weeks ago. Clint Eastwood stars in this movie and plays an old secret service agent who was on duty at the JFK assassination. His regrets about "not taking that bullet" comes back as he tracks a new assassin played by John Malkovich. The movie was one of Clint's best action thrillers.

The Magic Loogey

Discussing about the grassy knoll, reminded me of the classic Seinfeld episode with Kramer's grassy knoll experience. This was a two episode series when Keith Hernandez became friends with Jerry. Kramer and Nueman believed Hernandez had spit at them after a game as they were walking out to the parking lot. But Jerry doubted this "theory" and provided a scientific analysis of the events to debunct it. As Jerry described it, the trajectory of the spit would require it to be "some magic loogey".

Shocking World Events and the Stock Market

One interesting thing I was wondering about was the short term impact to the stock market after shocking world events like the JFK assassination. Below is a list of shocking world events in the last 70 years, the close of the Dow right before the event and the close a few days after.

• Pearl Harbor 12/7/41: Dow on 12/5: 116, Dow on 12/10: 109 (-6%)
• N. Korea invasion of the South 6/24/50: Dow on 6/23: 224, Dow on 6/29: 207 (-8%)
• Sputnik 10/4/57: Dow on 10/3: 466, Dow on 10/11: 441 (-5%)
• Cuban Missile Crisis 10/22/62: Dow on 10/19: 573, Dow on 10/23: 558 (-3%)
• JFK Assassination 11/22/63: Dow on 11/21: 733, Dow on 11/22: 712 (-3%)
• Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait 8/02/90: Dow on 8/1: 2899, Dow on 8/7: 2711 (-6%)
• 9/11/01: Dow on 9/10: 9606, Dow on 9/21: 8236 (-14%)

posted by Ken on 8:10 AM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, November 16, 2003

 

GLC Must Live On!

Just watched another great Seinfeld rerun. It was the Frogger episode in which George finds he still holds the high score on the Frogger video game in the old Pizza place where he and Jerry use to hang out as teenagers (His initials GLC still are at the top of the list in the video game). To preserve the GLC legacy, he buys the video game and tries to move it while keeping its power on so his high score won't be lost (Good thing they didn't have that major blackout back then...).

George asks for help from Kramer in recruiting help in moving the machine. During George's conversation with Kramer, George had this classic quote:

Kramer, listen to me. I'm never going to have a child... If I lose this Frogger high score, that's it for me.

In a hilarious ending, George plays a "real" game of Frogger in trying to cross the street with the machine. But, unfortunately, his luck runs out.

Do Graphics Really Add All That Much to Video Games?

The Frogger episode reminded me of something I've been thinking about regarding video games and their ever improving graphics and CPU power. Does this increase in performance really improve the basic quality of a video game? Sure, the game might look "more realistic". But does this really increase the long term enjoyment of the game? In my opinion, it does not.

Fancy graphics are definitely important in selling games. But in the long term, I don't think they are all that important. The qualities that make a game a classic are not graphics, but the mental aspects of the game. It doesn't matter if you're controlling a realistic running dinosuar or the hopping of a handful of dots made to look like a frog. It's the game's objective and its mental and physical challenge.

So for Christmas, buy some inexpensive classic games instead of the latest overpriced graphic intensive video games. Feel free to use the above argument. However, it will probably take some more work to convince the younger ones....

Extreme Cheapness

Bankrate.com's Frugal U. collects tips from people on ideas to save more and spend less money. The best tip each month receives $100. Most tips offer some reasonable ways for people to save a little. For laughs, they just recently created a list of the more extreme submissions. These are tips only for the most extreme tightwads. Many are pretty funny. Here are my favorites:

• To save money when washing your car, use the squeegee at the gas station
• Unplug clocks in your house while sleeping
• Never buy sandwich bags or storage bags again. Use the liners from cereal boxes and newspaper wrappers.

posted by Ken on 1:02 PM permalink and comments  

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Saturday, October 25, 2003

 

Halloween Thoughts...

How to Come Out Ahead in Daylight Savings Time

Every year on the Sunday before Halloween, daylight savings time ends. The nice thing about this time change is that you gain an hour. As is often the case in life, for every gain there's a loss, and for every loss there's a gain. So next April, we'll lose an hour as we go back to daylight savings time.

But I just found a way in this daylight savings time process where you could come out ahead. If you die between October and April, you end up gaining an hour without ever losing it. Thus, you come out ahead. Of course, there is that little detail of being dead...

I Have Some Bad News and Some Good News

I wonder if a doctor with a weird sense of humor ever told a healthy patient this:

I have some bad news and some good news. The bad news is that you are going to die (The doctor then would pause and let the patient get really worried.) The good news is that it probably won't be for another 30 to 70 years (May take the patient awhile to realize that this is true for every healthy adult.)

Unique, Simple, and Cheap Halloween Costume Ideas

For about 6 straight years I use to go to a Halloween party hosted by some co-workers/friends. I'm not the type of guy who's into elaborate costumes. My favorite costumes are low-key, simple, unique, and cheap. Here are some of the favorite costumes that I made during this time:

• Duct Tape Man - I used a roll of duct tape and an old black T-shirt and created a duct tape vest. On the back, I cut out the letters "Duct Tape Man". I kept it simple and cheap by justing making a vest. Of course, duct tape could be used in a full head-to-toe costume for those so inclined.
• Spider-Man - My version wasn't exactly the typical Spider-Man costume. Instead, I bought a package of rubber spiders and sewed them onto a T-shirt and a hat as if they were crawling on me. I also tied one to a long piece of thread and arranged it on my shirt so I could have it move.
• Toxic Mold Man - This was one of my most unique costumes. I took an old white T-shirt and used a black pen to dot the bottom half of it with patches of make-believe mold. This is also probably one of my most scary costumes. After that Halloween, two people at the party experienced toxic mold in their homes and had 30K to 50K of repairs done.

I did have one dud for a costume idea. One Halloween I attempted to create the costume "The Ant Man". My idea was to gather a whole bunch of real ants inside ziploc bags and tape these bags to my shirt and pants. I couldn't find any ant hills near my apartment so I attempted to create a bait. I placed Poptart crumbs on the balcony and waited for them to come. Well, not enough ants came, so I gave up that idea and reverted back to my old Spider-Man costume. I was probably better off without the ants. I don't think I would have been that popular at the party...

posted by Ken on 11:18 AM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, October 19, 2003

 

Sunrise and Sweet Madam Blue

Last weekend, I saw something that I have never seen before, a sunrise rainbow. As I was stepping out for my jog, the clouds had lifted enough to let the sunrise sun shine on the morning drizzle creating this amazing rainbow.

These kinds of sunrises often remind me of my favorite song, Sweet Madam Blue from the rock band Styx. It has great lyrics, great tempo, and provides a symbolism that I think will always be relevant to America. I particularly like the 60 second soft interlude in the middle of the song and how it ends in a high intensity, rythmic crescendo. It gives a feeling of energetic rebirth from a dark captivity, kind of like a glorious sunrise.

One thing that would be cool is if a Washington DC radio station would make it a ritual to play Madam Blue at every Sunday morning sunrise. Then as the sun rises over the national capital, the song could be heard on thousands of radios through out the downtown parks, playing in unison the song that symbolizes the dreams and hopes that people feel for America.

Yankees and Seinfeld

Baseball playoffs have reduced my viewing of Seinfeld reruns lately. Looks like the Yankees have once again made it to the World Series. One thing I've noticed while watching is the uniforms these days look more comfortable. Perhaps more cotton? Maybe George Costanza was on to something.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's Victory

The recall election in California was one for the history books. It'll be interesting to see how Arnold does as governor. There's one thing good for the nation: At least we'll be free of new Schwarzenegger movies in the next several years... Actually, I'm not really a hater of his movies. He has made some good action movies. However, T3 was a dissapointment for me. Wonder what they're going to do for T4 now that Schwarzenegger claims he's not going to do any acting while governor.

Even though Arnold is pretty inexperienced in government, there is one important trait that should help him. That trait is extreme determination. It's that trait that is required to be number one in any sport including body building. This determination, dedication, and winning attitude should be beneficial to a government leader. Of course other traits are also important like ethics, intelligence, and leadership. It should be interesting to see how things go.

Another point to note in Arnold Schwarzenegger is his social liberalism. Social liberal Republicans seem to be growing in popularity. New York also has such politicians in Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg. Even though he wasn't a Republican, Jessie Ventura also seems to share similar beliefs.

I wonder if this can really change the Republican party. The best thing that could happen, in my opinion, is if this wing of the party formed a new party with a moderate libertarian philosophy which combines economic conservatism with social liberalism. A party with such a platform and with some strong and popular leaders could perhaps have some success.

I don't think a bottom-up approach from the current libertarian party is possible. I think it will take popular politcians leaving their current party and forming this new one. It could be similar to what Ross Perot did in 1992, but it will have to include many popular leaders who join together. Just like what Arnold did in California, it would definitely make things interesting.

David Blaine and Magic?

One thing in the news these days is the "magician" David Blaine and his "stunt" of 44 days of confinement over a London river in a transparent box. I suppose this stunt has some unique and interesting aspects. I guess supporters appreciate his mental fortitude to endure such an ordeal. Perhaps next year, he'll try for 88 days... Actually, 44 days seems kind of whimpish. How about 44 years? Now that would be impressive. That would be a life well lived....

You might have detected some sarcasm above. You might have guessed, I'm not a fan of this stunt. I think people have to be careful not to get carried away by unproductive goals. Of course what's productive and what's not is debatable. 44 days confined in a box just doesn't seem all that productive.

I would prefer David Blaine spend more time developing his old brand of magic with tricks and mind games that fascinate viewers and leave them wondering how he could have done that.

In my engineering job, we often spend a lot of time trying to figure out what's wrong with a chip or some software code. Sometimes, things just don't make sense. Things happen that just doesn't seem possible. But by carefully thinking things through, by eliminating definite impossibilities, and brainstorming new ideas, we usually figure out these issues.

Trying to figure out ingenious magical tricks is what I use to like about David Blaine. I think it's something that can make learning fun and inspire future problem solvers in science and government. Finding ways to do what seems impossible is the essense of good magic. Hopefully, Arnold Schwarzenegger has some of this training...

posted by Ken on 1:53 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, September 21, 2003

 

Using credit card cash back to its fullest

I first got my GM credit card in the early 90's. The nice thing about this card is that 5% of your purchases with this card is given back as a rebate toward the purchase of your future GM car. I built up a sizable rebate in 2001 and used this to buy a new Prizm. Since this rebate can only be built up for 7 years and I plan to keep my Prizm for 10 or more years, I'm now using Discover credit card. This gives 1% cash back.

Since I'm not a big spender, I was never able to accumulate much of a rebate until I found out about this one method. What I started to do in 1999 was to use my credit card to buy US savings bonds. Savings bonds are great alternatives to CDs. Their rates are comparable to CDs, and best of all, you don't pay federal taxes until you cash them. With savings bonds, I was able to finally build up a nice rebate.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. The government is ending the credit card payment system for savings bonds, and instead has started a system that debits your checking account. However, the credit card purchase system is still in effect until December 30, 2003. They're now pushing this new system. Their old credit card system is hidden away here.

There's also another trick for maximizing credit card rewards. I got my Discover Card by signing up at SearchCactus.com. This site gives a cash reward for signing up for credit cards and other things. I received $20 for signing up for Discover Card at this site. I then used it to buy savings bonds with 1% cash back, with no annual fee or other charges.

Of course, this credit card technique breaks down if you carry a balance and pay interest and finance fees. I just read from a Wall Street Journal article by Ron Leber that claims 61% of Americans carrry a credit card balance. According to the article, this is 51 million households who carry an average balance of $11,944 (article sites Cardweb.com for this statistic).

posted by Ken on 4:11 PM permalink and comments  

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Kramer Quote

Most of my favorite Seinfeld quotes come from George. But I just recently came across a rerun with Tony the male bimbo, (mimbo) and Erica the phone sex lady. This episode had a pretty hilarious quote from Kramer as he was trying to convince Jerry that his girl friend, Jane, was Erica. The exchange between Kramer and Jerry was so intriguing that I'm wondering if it wasn't spoofing some movie or something. It starts off with Jerry telling Kramer:

You're crazy

Kramer counters: Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind

Jerry then says: That's impossible

Kramer counters again: Is it? Or is is so possible that your head is spinning like a top.

It can't be says Jerry.

Then finally, Kramer ends it with: Can it? Or is your entire world just crashing down all around you.

Jerry's girl friend also had an interesting connection with Elaine. The episode started with Elaine begging Jane for a square of toilet paper in the stalls of a theater restroom. Jane couldn't "spare a square" and Elaine couldn't believe it. At the very end of the show, Elaine finally recognizes her voice at the time Jerry was convinced Jane was Erica, and Elaine gets her revenge.

Also in this episode, George had some hilarious scenes with Tony the mimbo (or the cool guy). It was hilarious to see George so desparately trying to be friends with the "cool guy". The rock climb and Tony's fall due to George's obsession in trying to impress Tony with his sandwiches was another example of great writing.

Rock Climbing and DVDs

Speaking of rock climbing, I just finished watching Mission Impossible 2 on my new portable DVD player. The DVD had a bunch of special features with background about how they did the stunts in the movie. My favorite stunt was Tom Cruise climbing the giant cliff in Arizona. There were some unbelievable footage of Cruise climbing, seemingly 2000 feet high with no ropes. Cruise's character then did some truely unbelievable stunts like jumping 15 feet to another cliff edge where he slips and just barely grabs the ledge. He then hangs with one hand, twists and grabs a rock with the other hand where he hangs in an iron cross position. He then swings his body and uses his leg to make it up the cliff, after which, he soon reaches the top.

From the background on this stunt, it was revealed that Cruise actually did all of this cliff stunts including the 15 foot jump. Unfortunately, they didn't show exactly what he did at the high altitude, and what ropes they actually had. But from the footage, it sure looked like Cruise had a lot of high climbing with no ropes.

I think I'll stick with the indoor rock climbing. This makes me want to go back to Vegas to give the 75-foot Gameworks rock another try. Last May, I made it up that rock and rang the bell. But if it wasn't for the rope and the belay, I would be history. There was no one-arm hanging into an iron cross. Perhaps I'll do better the next time. Probably not too many people think about going to Vegas just to climb a giant indoor rock....

Portable DVD Player?

BTW, you might be thinking the portable DVD player is a little out of character for this site "Cheap Thoughts". Actually, I didn't buy it. I earned it by giving a presentation in an IC design tool user conference. This gave me extra motivation for giving the presentation since I've been living without a DVD player.

I had been considering a DVD player since they've come down in price by so much. However, I have one little complication. I still have an old TV with only RF inputs. Most all DVD players only have S-video or Composite video output. I do have a VCR that can accept these inputs, but I read on the net that the copy protection systems they put into DVDs and DVD players makes it impossible to get clear picture buy hooking a DVD player to a TV through a VCR. But I no longer have to worry about this now that I have a portable DVD player with a 7 inch LCD screen. You may think a 7-inch screen is small, but a 7-inch screen at 2 feet away can look the same as a 35-inch screen 10 feet away. Big screens in my opinion are overrated.....

posted by Ken on 3:05 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, September 14, 2003

 

Proposition 12, Lawsuits, and My Jury Experience

There was another election in Texas yesterday. 22 propositions were on the ballot. Proposition 12 was the one with the most interest. It puts a cap on non-economic damages from law suits. It's suppose to help keep the malpractice insurance down for doctors.

This proposition reminded me of the time I was a juror for a case in which a rape victim was suing her former apartment complex for being negligent in safety. Her lawyer was pushing for a multimillion dollar claim, most of it for pain and suffering. I did feel sorry for the lady and the trauma she went through. But the apartment complex wasn't at fault at all in my opinion. It didn't provide ideal security, but it was pretty typical to what I've seen. Plus, the precautions that this lady took was far from ideal. In short, myself and nine others of this 12-person jury agreed that the apartment complex wasn't liable of any negligence. Since it was a civil case, we only needed 10 out of the 12 jurors to reach a verdict.

So I did my part to combat greedy trial lawyers. I would suspect that most juries and judges do the same. It's just a handful of cases, like the time a jury found McDonalds liable for having coffee too hot in a coffee spill accident, that gets publicity. Nevertheless, I have seen many people filing lawsuits with questionable validity in my opinion.

Proposition 12 did pass, with 51% of the vote. It will be interesting to see the effect it will have. I just would like to see my insurance rates go down one of these years...

Milk, Cereal, and Vitamins

One thing that I've never seen is milk in aluminum cans. Even Slimfast, which has a lot of milk, is not in aluminum cans. Wonder if there is something in milk that makes it react with aluminum???

Finally gave soy milk a try. I drink about a gallon of skim milk a week (half of it for my cereal). Sure seems like soy milk should be cheaper than cows milk. But it is usually twice as much. My thinking is this is mostly due to the large volume of cow milk that is sold as compared to soy milk. But this Friday, the cost of a half-gallon soy milk with an instore coupon was only 13 cents more than half of a gallon of cows milk. So I gave it a try. It wasn't too bad. It's actually a little more creamy than skim cows milk. The taste is different than cows milk, but it's something that I could get use to.

In the last two months, I've switched to eating hot oatmeal rather than cold cereal in the mornings. I'll have to admit that it doesn't taste as good as most cold cereals, but oatmeal has two big advantages. First, it has more soluble fiber, protein, complex carbs, and less sugar than most other cold cereals. Second, the generic brand is about half the cost of any other cold cereal. On sale, I might be able to get a 20 ounce box of cold cereal for $2. Then even with a $1 off coupon for two boxes, the price per box is still $1.50. However, I can get a 42 ounce box of store brand oatmeal for $1.79. This is about $0.90 for 21 ounces. Besides taste, the only other bad thing about this store brand oatmeal is that it doesn't include any extra vitamins. Most cold cereal are fortified with some vitamins. But this isn't a big deal for me since I include a multi-vitamin/mineral supplement with my breakfast.

Speaking of cereals and vitamins, one thing that always seems strange to me is Total cereal. For years it advertises the fact that it has 100% of most vitamins and minerals. And to equal one bowl of Total, you would have to eat X bowls of cereal Y. The thing they don't mention is that vitamins and minerals are just added to Total just like any other cereal. They just add more than others. So what's the difference between eating Total cereal versus eating any other cereal and taking a multi-vitamin pill? Also, Total cereal is usually much more expensive than other cereal. So it would probably be a lot cheaper to eat another brand and just add a multi-vitamin pill to one's diet. I suppose there are issues of how well the vitamins are dissolved and digested by the body. But Total cereal never goes into these details.

I've heard many say that you shouldn't have to take vitamins if you eat a well balance diet. Well, I've looked into the vitamin and mineral content of many foods. Even if you eat many whole grain foods, vegetables, and fruits, it seems that you would be lacking the recommended daily allowances of many of the less common vitamins and minerals like vitamin E, B6, K, or minerals like manganese, zinc, and iodine. Vitamin C and A can easily be found in many vegetables and fruits. But other vitamins seem a lot less common. Likewise for minerals. So it seems like it would be wise to take a mulit-vitamin/mineral supplement. I wonder if these daily recommended allowances are really that accurate?

posted by Ken on 2:31 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, September 07, 2003

 

Capitalism is War without Violence

One result of technology is suppose to be more free time for people. Technology is suppose to allow for greater productivity which should allow people to work less. But with capitalism, does this theory hold water? Seems like with competition, there's always a need to produce more with less. If company "A" takes 10000 man-hours to generate product "X" and company "B" can generate product "X" in only 5000 man-hours, company "B" will sell "X" for less and will win the market. So company "A" will have to learn how to generate product "X" in less time. Ideally, you work smarter, not longer. But that's easier said then done. In short, in my opinion, the work week and the amount that people have to work will never go down because of technology. It might be less physically demanding work, but it will still be time away from family and away from leisure.

Another way for a company to generate a product for less, is to reduce labor costs. For many years now, companies have been shifting their manufacturing overseas to reduce costs. Now with the new communication and internet technology, it's becoming easier to shift white collar jobs overseas. And with wages averaging 5 to 10 times less in many Asian countries than in the U.S., there is certainly savings to be made. Will high paying white collar jobs keep going overseas?

Most politcians will agree with free trade, and will just lecture about keeping it fair. Seems like trade can never be completely fair when there's so much discrepancy between standards of living around the world. Instead of debating fairness, seems like the only thing the U.S. has that can stop this job flight is American innovation and the economic environment that allows it to prosper.

In the late 1940's, American scientists at Bell Labs invented the transistor. In the 60's and 70's, the integrated circuit was invented in the U.S. These inventions provided the seeds for success of the great American companies like Intel, Microsoft, and Cisco. This is similar to the invention of the automobile assembly line by Henry Ford in the early part of the 20th century.

America's best bet to create high paying jobs is to create new inventions and new industries. Unfortunately, there's a lot of uncertainty of what's possible and what's economical in technology. And competition around the world is tough. Interestingly, Bell Labs licensed the transistor and this gave the start to a Japanese company called Sony, which began using these transistors to make small, low power radios. Also interesting was the fact that the invention of the transistor wasn't realy huge news. Few really appreciated its potential and impact to society.

What is the next great technology? One thing that could have a huge impact, is a new, more efficient energy source. If energy was 10x or 100x cheaper to produce, things that worry people now, would no longer be a concern. For example, fresh water is something that's always a concern in the U.S. and around the world. Most of the world is water, but this water is not fresh water and can't be directly used for farming and consumption. But if energy was 100x cheaper to produce, ocean water could be desalinated. Then it could be pumped anywhere. If energy was really inexpensive, this could be done and its impact around the world would be huge. And if this energy didn't produce carbon dioxide and other pollution, the impact to the future world would even be bigger.

But is a new, cheap, and clean energy source possible? Scientists have been working on fusion for at least 50 years with little progress. Fuel cells have been used since the 60's but remain expensive compared to fossil fuels. Wind and solar generation remain expensive after decades of research. Nuclear fission reactors suffer from radioactive waste. Seems like we are a long ways off from a new and clean energy source that's orders of magnitude cheaper than what we have now. But like the transistor, something may be out there that people don't yet fully understand the potential. If the U.S. can be the inventor of something like this, worry about jobs would fade away for at least a decade. Then we'll need to invent something new and great yet again.

Politics and the Internet

Political campaigns seem to be requiring more and more money. People worry that this need for money is corrupting the political process. In addition to campaign reforms, some argue for more government money to help take out the corrupting influence of money.

But what does this money buy? A lot of the money is used for TV commercials. But how useful are TV commercials? Sure they let people know that you're in the race. But how much information can be given in a 30 second commercial? Hopefully, people are not making decisions based on these.

For very little money, a web site seems like a perfect way for politicians to educate people about their campaigns, their ideas, and the issues. It can provide 100x more information than a 30 second commercial, and everybody with internet access can see it. Some web sites of political candidates have not been much more than their political signs, very static and shallow. But some candidates have impressed me with their sites. Howard Dean's site is one. I'm not really a fan of him, but his web site is impressive. I hope others learn from this and follow in his shoes. In addition to the basics, it has a political blog and a link to a pretty good discussion forum. A discussion forum seems like a perfect way to get people more involved in politics in today's society. There's a lot of work that is required to make sure intelligent discussions takes place on the boards. Also, I don't see the candidates using these. But there's a lot of potential here to educate voters and get them involved without requiring candidates to raise more and more money. The internet should be very good for democracy.

posted by Ken on 1:02 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, July 13, 2003

 

Donating Blood and the History of Blood

Gave blood this week at a blood drive at work. It was my second time giving blood. Half the time was spent at the initial questions. I guess they want to make sure the person actually understands each question. One of the nurses reads out each health history question and checks off the answer. Then at the end, the donor is given one last chance to decide whether or not to have their blood used. They allow you to anonomously post a "use my blood" or "don't use my blood" label. So if you had lied about an answer to one of the health questions, you're given one last chance to "do the right thing".

They put you through a lot to keep the blood supply safe. Last year, PBS had an interesting documentary on the history of blood (link). It took mankind a long time to figure our blood type. It wasn't until the start of the 20th century, that doctors found out about blood types and it's importance in giving blood. One of the most common recipients of blood happen to be mothers during child birth when complications arise. During the 19th century, doctors often tried to give blood to mothers. They usually had donors of the same family. But since even family members don't always have matching blood types, mothers often didn't make it.

But finally, early in the 20th century, doctors and scientists found out about blood type and the success rate of blood transfusion successes went way up, just in time for World War I and II.

After World War II, the main issue was keeping blood safe. The documentary mentioned that in the 50's and 60's it was common to be paid for giving blood. But it was soon realized that blood from donors was much safer than blood from people being paid. So now most blood in the blood banks is from donors.

And it seems that science is not winning the war against disease. After 20 years, Aids is still far from being won. And now we have SARs. At least, SARs seems to have been contained for now. The first thing they gave me when I came in to give blood was two pamphlets on the West Niles Virus and SARs to make sure I had no risk factors for these.

Finally, some interesting little facts about blood

For every 25lbs, a person has 2 pints of blood.

A pint of blood is worth about $30.

Seinfeld and Blood

This reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where Kramer began banking his own blood in his freezer. Jerry then was accidentally cut with a knife and ended up getting Kramer's blood (which Jerry wasn't too excited about). It was also the episode with Izzy Mandelbaum (Lloyd Bridges) who was an old exercise maniac who had been hired by Jerry's parents to get Jerry intp shape. He and his maniac son end up putting Jerry back in the hospital (after freaking out from the blood that Kramer had used as antifreeze in Jerry's car). This time, Jerry ends up getting blood from his archenemy, Nueman. The show ended as Jerry starts a "scream trio" with Kramer and Neuman as Jerry finds about the transfusion.

The show was one of the more "somewhat silly" episodes in my opinion. For example, would Jerry really agree to get tied on a rope to the back of his car so Izzy could help get him into shape? Also, would Kramer really use his blood for antifreeze? (Well, I suppose that may be a possibility). This was one of two episodes with Lloyd Bridges playing Izzy Mandelbaum. The Izzy character was pretty funny. Seinfeld shows always did pretty well with guest stars. The other ones that come to mind include: Keith Hernandez, Bette Midler, Rudy Guoliani, and Rachel Welch.

posted by Ken on 3:58 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, June 29, 2003

 

Stock Market Turn Around?

Well the year is almost half over and everyone still is wondering if the bear market is over. In the second quarter, it seems like there was a lot of hope for a recovery. The Iraq war had been won. Gas prices were going down. Inflation remained low, and additional tax reductions were being passed as further economic stimulus. The market did go up from it's March lows. But there are still worries. It seems like everybody is looking for real evidence that corporate earnings are improving and that companies are ready to spend and hire. Nothing concrete has really been seen yet.

For someone like me who is invested in stock mutual funds like the S/P index fund, these last three years have been tough. I still have the hope that a diversified stock fund will average around 10% per year in the long term just as history has shown for the last 80 years. So hopefully, these last three years are just the averaging out of above average returns seen in the last two decades.

There are many bears in the media. They claim stocks are still over valued and see new market lows in the near future.

Even the Great Depression started to improve after three years. The stock market crashed in the fall of 1929. The Dow hit its low in just under three years. In the next few years, the market went up until the late thirties where it faltered again. Then World War II came. But during this time, the market stayed well above its 1932 lows. However, it didn't reach a new high until the 1950's.

But what worries me is if the US market does something like what Japan's Nikkei market has done. The Nikkei peaked in late 1989 and has never since hit a new high. Earlier this year the Nikkei had hit a 20 year low. Many blame this bad market on Japan's banking system. The US may have a better banking system, but what about its other issues like rising debt, corporate accounting, loss of manufacturing jobs, etc.

One thing I like to do is to look back at market history. A thing nice about Yahoo is how you can grab market and company stock historical data. I did this for the S/P index. I chose the S/P index since it is a broad market index that is reflective in many of my mutual funds. I wrote a little perl program and did some analysis of the S/P index prices starting around 1950. I had the program find bear markets where the S/P index declined more than 10% from its previous peak. For example, in mid 1987 the S/P hit a new high. Later that year, the market crashed. It took the S/P about 18 months into 1989 before the S/P hit a new high. My program would find these valleys.

Before our current bear market, the worst bear market since 1950 started in 1974 when the S/P index had declined about 48% from its peak in the early 70's. The S/P didn't hit a new high until 1980. However, it did make a good run from 1975 to 1976 where it recovered about 75% of its decline.

Based on the S/P index, this bear market is worse. So far, the S/P has bottomed out at 776 last October. That's about 2.5 years after it peaked at 1527 in March of 2000. That's a decline of about 49%. The S/P came close to hitting a new low last March, just before the start of the Iraq war. But its decline stopped at around 800.

When Will the Bear Market End?

Purely from history, I would say this year and the next should be a good year for the market, and it should regain at least 50% of what it had lost. That would mean the S/P index should hit around 1150 or about 18% higher than it is now. But if this is like the 70's, another decline will happen which will prevent a quick return of new highs. So it may be another 5 to 10 years before the markets hit new highs. Hopefully, it will do better than the Nikkei.

My Dream is to Become Hopeless

On the subject of hope in the market, I picked up another fun quote from a Seinfeld rerun. This was an early episode in which Jerry and Elaine match up George with Elaine's friend. Before this match-up was made, George and Jerry were discussing dating (a similar discussioin was going on between Elaine and her friend). As usual, George's humorous form of pessimism comes out in this quote from that conversation:

"I don't want hope. Hope is killing me. My dream is to become hopeless. When you're hopeless, you don't care. And when you don't care, that indifference makes you attractive."

Then Jerry says: "So hopelessness is the key"

George then continues: "That's my only hope."

posted by Ken on 1:17 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, June 22, 2003

 

Survived Vegas

Vegas was worth the visit. Not being much of a gambler, I didn't spend much time inside the casinos. Most of my time was spent touring the giant hotels that line the strip. Thanks to gambling, the hotels freely open up their hotels (at least the areas near the casinos) to the public. If it wasn't for gambling, the giant hotels wouldn't be built. If they were, the hotels wouldn't be nearly as open to the public. But thanks to gambling and the hotels' effort to attract gamblers, there are a bunch of magnificient hotels with amazing designs and attractions (and much of it free to see.) So by avoiding gambling, I felt like I had a good deal in Vegas.

Although I didn't gamble much, I did spend quite a bit of time watching my brother and others gamble. At first I thought it might be possible to predict a range of numbers that the roulette wheel may fall based on the velocity of the wheel when it starts. However, I quickly gave this effort up after seeing how it's implemented. The wheel moves in one direction and the ball is thrown in the opposite direction. Plus, there are a bunch of little metal obstacles on the table that often deflects the ball and thereby adds more randomness to where the ball lands. Thus, I concluded that roulette is extremely random. The same goes with blackjack and the slots. I guess that should be expected...

One thing I noticed about gambling is that it is only entertaining if you win at least occasionally. It seems somewhat obvious, but it's very important psychological phenomemon that casinos take full advantage of. If every game only had tiny odds of winning anything, most people would get dissatified quickly. But by keeping the odds close to 50%, people do win some and that keeps them trying to win more. But probability does work. The casinos' odds are always above the gamblers. And casinos end up making big money, enough money for them to invest hundreds of million of dollars in these gigantic hotels.

But for those who can resist the temptation to gamble, they are rewarded by free access into some amazing hotels.

Other Things to See While in Vegas

There are a lot of other interesting things to do and see in southern Nevada besides casinos. I especially liked our tour of the Grand Canyon. We flew on a small plane from Vegas to a small airport just south of the Grand Canyon. The flight alone was worth the $160 tour price. Then we took a bus to two Grand Canyon overlooks where we had about 90 minutes at each stop to see the Canyon. The Canyon was an amazing view, better than I had anticipated. In addition to the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam was great place to visit. Vegas also has some nice state parks nearby (Red Rock and Vallery of the Fire) with some nice trails.

The 3-Door Game

Calculating the odds of different gambling games can be difficult. You may sense that you know the odds, but you probably don't. Here's one example of a simple game that is very simple, but determining the odds is confusing. Here's the basic premise:

A gameshow host gives you a choice of three doors. Behind one of those doors is the prize. There's an equal chance that the prize is behind one of the three doors.

After you pick a door, the host opens up one of the other two doors which does not have the prize. The host then gives you another choice. You may keep your original guess, or you may pick the other door. What should you do to maximize your chance of picking the door with the prize?

Many people who I have told this puzzle to think the odds of keeping the original door and the odds of switching to the other door are equal. But that is not the correct answer.

Here's the easiest way to think of it. First, the probability of the first guess being right is 1/3. The probability of the first guess being wrong is 2/3. Now suppose your first guess is wrong. That means the first door you pick does not have the prize behind it. So it has to be behind one of the other two doors. Then the host opens up a door that you didn't pick and that does not have the prize behind it. If your first guess is wrong, there is only one door left that he can open. So if you switch doors, you will win. In other words, if your first guess is wrong and you always switch doors, you will always win. The probability of guessing wrong is 2/3. So by switching, your probability of winning is 2/3. If you decide to keep your original guess, your probability is 1/3. Thus, switching doors improves your probability to win the prize.

As you can see, determining this probability of this simple game wasn't easy. So if you think the odds favor you at some casino, don't be so sure. Unfortunately, I didn't find the 3-door game at Vegas....

posted by Ken on 1:40 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, May 11, 2003

 

Seven Costanza?

This week they had the Seinfeld rerun where George comes up with the name "Seven" for his and Susan's future child. Susan's cousin and her husband were having dinner with George and Susan. During dinner they discuss the baby and possible names. George suggested the name "Soda" which they both didn't like at all. While Susan and George were driving back from dinner, George told Susan of his ideal name for their future child - "Seven" (Mickey Mantle's number). Susan hated the name, and later told her cousin of this argument they had over this name. The cousin and her husband actually loved the name "Seven", and decided to use it for their new baby. When George heard they were stealing his name, he got furious. George insisted that it has "cachet", but Susan disagreed. Then George angrily responded:

Oh its got cachet baby! Its got cachet up the ying yang!

Interestingly, both the name "Soda" and "Seven" meet my 4 rules for baby names. However, as I mentioned last week, both names are probably a little too odd for a name. Also interesting about this episode is that the cousin's husband name is "Ken".

Price Rounding

One of these days, I would like to see a gas station that rounds their prices to the nearest cent. It's amazing that all gas stations have 9/10th of a cent added to their price. Does it really create the illusion that the price is 1 cent cheaper? Let's say you use 600 gallons of gas per year. The amount that you save from not rounding is 60 cents for the entire year. If gas is one cent more costly, it would add up to just $6 a year. Even though I'm pretty careful with my spending, I'm not going make a special trip to a gas station in a less convenient location to save just a penny a gallon.

Vacation to Las Vegas, Gambling, and the Lottery

I'll be taking a vacation starting next Saturday to Las Vegas with my brother. Although I'm not into gambling, there are a lot of other things I look forward to such as the amazing hotels, Hoover Dam, and the Grand Canyon. But one interesting thing to me is the psychology of gambling. It's clearly a powerful force that has built the gambling meca of Las Vegas.

I just heard a fact this morning that 48 of the 50 states now have state lotteries. Seems like the most successful lotteries are the ones that have the biggest jackpot. Every time the jackpot gets big, it gets free publicity on the news. The bigger the prize, the more time the news spend on it.

Here's my suggestion for playing the lottery. Before the drawing, just pick the numbers and write them down. Write down as many picks as you want. But don't buy any tickets. Then when the numbers come out, see if any of your numbers are winners. For each wrong pick, award yourself $1 (assuming a ticket costs $1). For each winning pick, subtract from your "winnings" the price of the winner. Most likely you might have to subtract a few dollars for when you get 3 of 6 right. Perhaps you'll have to subtract around a hundred dollars for 4 of 6. Keep doing this for a year, and I bet you'll find that you are coming out ahead. Of course, there's a tiny chance you'll lose big if one day you get all 6 numbers. But I bet that never happens.

posted by Ken on 2:30 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, May 04, 2003

 

My Baby Naming Rules

A co-worker became a father this week, and this got me thinking about what makes a good baby name. I've put together a list of four attributes for a "good" name.

1. Fairly unique - Names are suppose to identify a person. If a name is shared with too many others, the name loses its usefulness as an identifier. Confusion results. This is a somewhat qualitative rule that can change over time. Some examples of overly common names that I don't think there would be argument over include "John", "George", and "Jim".
2. Two syllables - Unlike the last one, this is a very quantitative rule. A two syllable name has the advantage over a one syllable name in being able to be heard more easily. If there's a cough while the name is said, it's less likely to mask the entire name. Based on this, some may ponder a three or more syllable name. But then it gets too long and cumbersome.
3. Can't easily be abbreviated - This is also another reason why names shouldn't be more then two syllables. Three or more syllable names are more likely to be abbreviated into a one syllable name. When this happens, the advantage of having a multiple syllable name is wasted. Also, confusion exists throughout the person's life. When should you use your unabbreviated name versus your nick name?
4. Straightforward spelling - This is a relitively new rule for my list that another co-worker mentioned to me. She experienced the importance of this rule with her son. When you tell someone your name, you want his first assumption about its spelling to be right.

What would be examples of good names? Let's take the Seinfeld characters as a case study.

First, take the name Jerry. I'm not sure if this totally meets my first rule. However, it's no "John". On my second rule, it passes. It also would pass my third rule unless of course his real name (character or actual real name) is "Gerald" or something like that. Finally, it passes my fourth rule with a pretty generally accepted spelling. So this name makes a good name.

The name "Elaine" also does a pretty good job at the four rules. Same with "Kramer". However, I guess "Kramer" is actually the character's last name. His first name was "Cozmo". Is "Cozmo" a good name? If a name is too unusual, the person may feel compelled to be called by something else. So "Cozmo" is probably a little too unusual. The same goes with George's favorite name of "Seven". This would probably be too unusal for a name. So even though "Seven" passes my four rules, it probably wouldn't make for a good name due to its oddity for a name. I probably need to add this as my fifth rule...

The only definitely bad name on Seinfeld is "George". This fails the first two of my rule. On the other hand, his real name of "Jason" holds up pretty well against my rules.

posted by Ken on 12:20 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, April 27, 2003

 

NBA and Thunder

At first, I thought ABC wouldn't carry any playoffs until the NBA finals. Then last Sunday, I saw the Lakers playoff game on ABC so I thought this year playoffs would be similar to last year on NBC. But then I learned that ABC would just have one game per weekend until the finals. All the other games would be on cable. Last year I think NBC had six games on the first playoff weekend. Last week they had the curling world championship. It's getting more difficult in living without cable TV these days.

Since I haven't been watching many playoff games these days, I've been watching some movie videos. One little thing that I've noticed in many movies, is the special effects during thunderstorms. Seems like every storm in a movie has bolts of lightning that are immediately followed by the sounds of thunder (the last one I noticed this was Tombstone.) This would require all the lightning to be hitting within hundreds of yards from the scene. How many times do you remember storms like this? It takes about 5 seconds for the thunder to travel a mile from the lightning strike. So even if the lightning is close, let's say 1/2 mile, it would take 2.5 seconds to hear the sound of the thunder. Perhaps, this delay between flashes of lightning and the sounds of thunder don't make the scenes as dramatic as flash-bang. If that's the case, I guess I should get use to it.

Beware of the Trojan Fart

If a friend forwards you a link which appears to be some pictogram or image where if you stare at it, some interesting effects should occur, beware. I received one last week. I clicked the link and the page did open up with a seemingly benign pictogram. But then after a couple of seconds, a loud noise, of you-know-what, shot out from my workstation (unfortunately, the audio of my workstation happened to be set to a high level.) In addition, the pictogram turned into a quite unpleasant scene of an ugly side of an overweight man. So at the very least, be sure to keep your audio down...

Elections

I just voted in the early voting elections yesterday. Not much on the ballot, and not too crowded at the polls. They had the early voting set up in a busy supermarket. It had opened at 7:00am. I got there at about 10:00am on Saturday. They told me I was only the 13th voter for the day. A lot of people get mad at the low voter turnouts. But if a voter hasn't studied the issues and the candidates, how useful are the votes? And it isn't easy to study the issues. Before I went to the poll, I tried to study the candidates and issues on the web. The city newspaper's web site didn't have much. I did find a little info at a lesser known city newspaper web site. Also, after 10 minutes of searching, I did find the local Women League of Voters web site with their information on the candidates and issues. But still doesn't seem like enough info to really understand the candidates and issues. Here's the link to find your local candidate info on the League of Women's Voter's web site: www.lwv.org

posted by Ken on 1:18 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, April 20, 2003

 

George's Words of Wisdom

This week I saw the Seinfeld rerun where Jerry requests assistance from George in how to beat a lie detector which his new girl friend, a police officer, asked him to take to prove that he has never seen Melrose Place. Elaine didn't think Jerry could pull it off. As she put it:

Who do you think you are? Costanza?

Jerry countered:

Hey, you know what, I have access to one of the most deceitful, duplicitess, deceptive minds of our time. Who better to advise me.

At first, George kept quiet. Then as George was walking out of the cafe, he gave Jerry his words of wisdom:

Hey Jerry, just remember... It's not a lie .... if you believe it...

This reminded me a little of Jason Alexander's attempt at a sitcom a few years ago. It tried to capture some of this humor of Jason Alexander. However, it didn't have the writing and the character development to make it.

In addition to this story, this episode also included George starting to wear a hair piece and then ironically getting fixed up with a bald lady by Kramer. In addition, Elaine attempted the futile effort to convince a potential boy friend to "switch teams". This was yet another great episode that combined great writing with great characters.

Guess Who Was Showing Curling?

Being someome who's careful in his spending, I've been living without cable for years. I get decent reception, and I don't watch all that much TV. Half my TV watching on weekday nights is actually PBS. I really enjoy their documentaries.

But this weekend, I experienced something that has me thinking that cable may have an edge these days. NBC lost the NBA this season. So what does NBC put on instead of NBA playoffs? I just switched over to NBC, and they're showing the 2003 World Curling Championship. Not sure what curling is? You might have seen a little bit of this in the winter Olympics. It's a little like shuffle board on ice except that players also use some sort of brooms to adjust the rock's placement. And guess what. USA women beat Canada in the championship (a great day in the history of USA sports). I don't want to put down Curling. It probably is a fun sport. But this is something that I would expect on cable, not NBC on a Sunday.

I had thought TNT had the exclusive rights to the playoffs until the championship series. But it looks like ABC will show games on Sundays. So maybe I can keep surviving without cable...

posted by Ken on 12:14 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, April 13, 2003

 

Always Wanted to be an Architect

How many times through out the Seinfeld series did George pretend to be an Architect? This seemed to pop up often in unexpected times. It was always funny such as when George was trying to help Jerry in convincing an old high school archrival that Jerry fairly won a 100 yard dash. George popped in on them at the coffee shop and pretended never to have met Jerry since high school. Of course, George's current job was an Architect. Another classic was when Jerry fixed George up with a lady and told her George was a marine biologist. Needless to say George was upset that Jerry forgot about his architect acting aspirations.

One architecture aspiration of mine is a designing a six story house. If money were of no concern, I think it would be cool to design a six story house for myself. It wouldn't have to be big house, just a tall house. On the bottom floor would be the garage. The second floor would be the kitchen and dining room. Living room would be on the third floor. Two bedrooms would be on the fourth floor. Finally, the master bedroom would be a penthouse taking up the fifth and sixth floor.

I always like being up high. I love skyscrappers. In Dallas just recently, I got to stay at the Hyatt Regency at the Reunion. I was able to stay on the 23rd floor overlooking downtown. It was pretty cool. Most of the time I stay in hotels that are more like motels which are rarely over 4 stories.

Although I was on the 23rd floor, it still wasn't all that high compared to other buildings in Dallas. The tallest one was close to the hotel. It was the Bank of America Plaza, a 72 story, 921 foot office tower. This tower is outlined by emerald green argon tubing which made for a great view at night.

posted by Ken on 12:48 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, March 30, 2003

 

War News Rather than Seinfeld

Instead of watching Seinfeld reruns, I've been watching the war coverage. PBS's Frontline put together several of it's past shows covering Iraq over the years. It started with Frontlines that were shown before the first Gulf War. In the days before that first war, there seemed to be a lot more concern about war with Iraq. Frontline showed Robert McNamara (Secretary of Defense during the start of the Vietnam War) at a Congressional meeting where NcNamara warned that they should expect thousands and thousands of casualties, and he recommended letting sanctions be given at least 12 to 18 months to work.

Also interesting was the first George Bush at a press conference several weeks after the war ended. Bush said:

You mentioned World War II. There was a definitive end to that conflict. Now we have Saddam Husein still there. I haven't yet felt this wonderfully euphoric feeling that many of the American people feel.

Couple other Frontline shows covered the UN inspections after the war. It seems like the inspectors had most of their success right after the war and in 1995 after an Iraqi defector filled them in on the Iraqi hiding strategy. But they mentioned that the inspectors received less and less support from the UN as time past. Finally, in 1998, Iraq was successful in ending the inspections. Clinton then had to figure out how to respond. There were indications that Clinton was planning something significant. The show had a piece of a town hall session where Clinton's top people like Madelin Albright, Sandy Berger, and William Cohen were trying to discuss the issues at Ohio State University. They were being booed and heckled by the crowd who expressed hatred for US sanctions and bombs against Iraq. Albright gave her opinion about Saddam:

He is qualitatively and quantitatively different from every other brutal dictator that has appeared recently, and we are very concerned about him specifically, and what his plans might be.

Well, Clinton did finally act in operation Desert Fox in December 1998. It was a bombing operation that lasted only four days. I guess they thought it would punish Iraq without causing too much anger at the UN or in the US. But in the minds of many people, Saddam had won...

The remaining Frontline continued with the second Bush replacing Clinton and the changes that occurred, especially after 9/11.

Quote from the First Bush

There was one quote that I remember from the first Bush before the first Iraq war. It never received any publicity. To me it had a feel of a Clint Eastwood line, but it wasn't so blatant that people would criticize it. I still remember it although I probably don't remember the exact words. I thought it expressed the situation quite nicely. It went something like this:

The Iraqi aggression against Kuwait will not stand. It's not a threat. It's not a boast. It's just the way it's going to be.

Spam Selling Anti-Spam Software....

Why do people send spam or junk email? I can't believe it really works these days. Only thing I can think is that the spammers must be desparate. I received a quite ironic spam a few days ago. The email was trying to sell me software that gets rid of spam....

Lately, there has been moves to help cut telemarketers by allowing people to sign up for do-not-call lists. Seems like something similar could be done with spam. I wish I could select the unsubscribe option in the spam without worrying that it will just notify the spammers that they had a hit. Seems like some sort of global unsubscribe method that's required by all commercial email could help a lot. This global unsubscribe option could be operated by some trustworthy organization that could ensure its integrity.

posted by Ken on 12:03 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, March 16, 2003

 

Any More Technology Innovation Possible Now?

With the huge technology slump that has been going on over the last three years, I've heard some concern that this may be the start of a very long slump in technology. They worry that we may have reached the peak of innovation, and that no company will be able to innovate and create exciting products that create profitable growth.

I have one example of how innovation can arise in the most unlikely of places. The example is Krispy Kreme Donuts. Who would have thought that innovation was possible in donuts? Donuts have been around for ages. Dunkin Donuts have been around ever since I can remember. But all of a sudden, Krispy Kreme comes out with a delicious version of the donut, and everybody wants one. The company goes public and is growing its revenunes and profits every day. So in my prediction, it won't be long before there's a bunch of Krispy Kreme like technology products that will help jump start us out of this slump.

Mount Everest

Our local news just had a story of a group of people starting out on the climb to the top of Mount Everest. The group is breaking new ground since many of them have various handicaps. I always find it interesting on how many people aspire to climb Mount Everest. It seems similar to many people's aspirations to finish a marathon or the Iron Man's Triathalon. In my opinion, their aspirations have gone wild... Albeit, I'm no risk taker, but you got to make sure aspirations don't go overboard. Yes, reaching the top of Mount Everest might make you feel that you've done a great accomplishment. Perhaps it might inspire others.. But couldn't something have been done more useful, more creative, and less risky? I've never been to Mount Everest, but after seeing some documentaries on it, it doesn't really seem glamorous. The trails up to the top seem to be littered with old oxygen canisters and occasional frozen bodies of unlucky climbers. Aren't there other better accomplishments to be done?

Funny Miscellaneous Quote

Thinking about people's opinions about things like marathons reminded me of a quote by Will Ferrell while he was a guest on David Letterman. He told Letterman that he was training to run the New York Marathon, and he wasn't getting too much encouragement from his father in-law who happened to be a doctor. Ferrell described his father in-law's opinion about this planned endeavor:

I'll have you know, running 26.2 miles is not good for the human body.

Pig Man Episode, a Seinfeld Classic

The pig man episode had a hilarious scene with contributions from all four of the characters. I was just going to mention George's quote, but all four of them had great lines in this scene, making it a classic in Seinfeld history. This episode combined the Jewish circumcision, George's bad luck with a hospital's suicide incident, and Kramer's pig man fantasy.

The scene started off with Kramer showing them a news article about the hospital doing DNA experiments and insisting it was proof that what he saw the day before was indeed a pig man. From Kramer:

The pig man is alive. The government has been experimenting with pig men since the 50's.... Jerry, will you wake up to reality, it's a military thing. They are probably creating a WHOLE army of pig warriors!

George then gave his opinion about it:

I tell you something, I wish there were pig men. You get a few of these pig men walking around, suddenly, I'm looking a lot better. That way if someone wants to fix me up, they could say, hey, at least he's no pig man.

Jerry then countered:

Believe me, there would be plenty of women going for these pig men. Whatever the deformity, there's always some group of perverts that's attracted to it. Uhh, that little tail really turns me on.

Then Elaine gave her two cents as she headed out:

I had just about enough.... But could you do me a favor? Could you tape the rest of pig men and the women who love pig men discussion, and i'll listen to it the next time i'm here.

posted by Ken on 12:51 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, March 09, 2003

 

Humorous Seinfeld Quotes

I came across some more funny Seinfeld quotes this week.

I was raised to give up

The first is from the episode where Jerry, Elaine, and George decide to volunteer to visit senior citizens. Things turned out to be tougher than they had anticipated. George actually had the easiest assignment. However, he blew it when he became obsessive about old age in his conversation with his senior which made the senior walk out and leave George holding the bill at the coffee shop. Jerry probably had the toughest assignment, and he brought up the fact that he was considering on quiting. Elaine then questioned the wisdom of quiting. George then gave the following hilarious quote supporting his decision to quit:

I'm a great quiter, that's one of the few things I do well. I come from a long line of quiters, my father was a quiter, my grandfather was a quiter, I was raised to give up.

George the Tourist

This is the episode where George comes across a New York visitor centor employee who thinks George is a New York tourist. George starts seeing this lady and decides that being considered a tourist has some advantages. So George continues to pretend to be a visitor and wants to make it look like he was able to get his current job (working in the Yankees organization) and his apartment as someone new to New York. Here is how George described it to Jerry:

You know, if you take everything I've accomplished in my entire life and condense it down into one day, it looks decent.

BTW, this was the same episode where Elaine comes up with the idea of selling muffin tops. Her former boss actually starts a shop called "Top of the Muffin to You!". Wonder if there are any shops out there who are actually selling muffin tops?

The first Seinfeld Episode?

I'm not positive, but I think this was the first Seinfeld or at least one of the first. This was the one that started with Jerry commenting about George's top shirt button while they were in the coffee shop (similar to how Jerry commented about George's button in the last episode.) One could see the early signs of a great series. The characters of Jerry, George, and Kramer were brought out (Elaine wasn't in this episode). An important atmosphere came out. It was a friendly atmosphere where close quirky friends humourously deal with things in their lives. This provided a foundation for a long sitcom series which would be reinforced by great writing.

The humorous quote was from Jerry while he and George were waiting in the public laundry room:

You can't over dry....The same reason you can't over wet. See once something is wet, it's wet. Same thing with death. Like once you die, you're dead, right? Let's say you drop dead and I shoot you. You're not going to die again, because you're already dead. You can't over die. You can't over dry.

If Real Life Could Only Be Like Seinfeld

Iraq?

Seinfeld reruns provide a nice break from reality these days. In the news, it looks likely that the US will go it along against Iraq. Seems like most would prefer the US to only go in if the UN Security Council passes another resolution. The chances of that resolution doesn't look good. So Bush will have to make the unpopular decision to go in alone.

North Korea?

Many Democrats are complaining about too much focus on Iraq and not enough on North Korea which may already have some nuclear bombs and are aggresively going forward on their nuclear program. Seems like the Bush administration may want to keep quiet on North Korea while they take care of Iraq. Then they can turn attention to North Korea. If military action is necessary in Iraq based on the principles of preventive action, it seems more necessary in North Korea. The peaceful agreements that were put in place in the 90's supposedly failed badly. It didn't stop North Korea from pursuing their nuclear program or in selling weapons.

So it looks like action in Iraq for the next month, then attention to North Korea. Probably, the US will push North Korea diplomatically through other countries in that region and through the UN. If no progress is made within a few months, I don't see any alternative for the US other than force if Bush is serious about the principle of prevention. Such action will be much tougher than Iraq on both diplomatic and military fronts.

Historical Significance

If Bush is able to end the regimes of Iraq and North Korea in his term (without creating a disaster), he will likely go down in history as one of the greatest presidents, on a scale similar to Lincoln. In the short term, many will consider him a tyrant. But it should be remembered that many considered Lincoln a tyrant during his days.

Many worry about the precedent this will set if the US acts alone to change regimes. It will make future countries more likely do the same (in ways we won't like). It will add to the US appearance of arrogance in the world, making it harder in our fight against terrorism. Many argue that this will make the future world more dangerous.

What Kind of Leader Could Have Stopped Hitler Early?

It's interesting to ponder the situation in Europe in the 1930's. Although there are many differences between 1930's Germany and today's Iraq, there are a few similarities. Many say Hitler could have been stopped if the European leaders put their foot down early, such as when Hitler reoccupied the Rhineland with armed forces. However, would Hitler have just given up? What kind of action would have been necessary by a French or British leader in the early or mid 1930's to have prevented the European World War II? Would it have just taken tougher diplomatic actions? Perhaps that would have made it more difficult for Hitler, but would it have stopped Hitler? In my opinion, a French or British leader would have had to go into Germany forcefully no later than 1936 to end Hitler's regime. Even though Germany wasn't nearly as strong as it was in 1939, that still would have been extremely difficult. Many neighbors such as Italy would have been vehemently against it. It would have made the British or the French look like war mongers. Hitler would have made it look like he and Germany were the victims of naked aggression.

Again, there are many differences between 1930's Germany and today's Iraq. Iraq has been contained for the last 12 years. The UN has at least put inspectors back into Iraq which has had limited success. But how threatening did Germany look in 1935? How would a change of regime in 1935 Germany affected situations in Asia? How dangerous are the regimes like those in Iraq and North Korea? Can they just be contained? Can't the US deal with these problems in a less arrogant and peaceful way? How did September 11 change the idea of containment?

It's the nature of weak leaders to always find reasons why not to act. However, it's also the nature of tyrants to always find reasons to act. For better or for worse, history is being made this year... Now I have to go back and watch some more Seinfeld reruns.....

posted by Ken on 12:59 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, February 23, 2003

 

Strange Habits

One habit that I notice many people have is licking their fingers when they turn a page of a book or newspaper. It's just a quick touch of the lips as the person grabs for the next page to turn. People from all cultures seem to have this habit. I've never started this. In fact, it is a little irritating to me. Does it really help that much in turning pages? Is it really necessary?

My Battle Experience

After jogging yesterday, I had drinks with some friends at Starbucks. During the conversation, the subject of battlefield experiences came up. Several had been in the military and mentioned the adrenaline rush one gets when firing a weapon. I mentioned that I totally understood. I have felt the stress, the adrenaline, the sweat, the fear. Although it wasn't exactly in the military... It was at laser tag. I've played about 3 times during team building exercises at work. Actually, I've never did that well at laser tag even with a lot of strategy formulating. I don't think I can take the stress. Good thing I'm too old for the draft....

The Bush Doctrine

Frontline on PBS had a great documentary on the evolution of the Bush Doctrine. Whatever your opinion is about Bush, the Bush Doctrine will likely go down in history as a turning point in American and World history. The Doctrine may well be compared to the Truman Doctrine that defined America during the Cold War. Here's the link to the PBS site Bush Doctrine

posted by Ken on 3:25 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, February 16, 2003

 

My Theories

Colds and Allergies

I have a theory about how colds spread. I've seen research saying that a prime method of cold virus transmission is when people touch their nose or eyes. If this is true, then allergy seasons should also be a time with lots of colds. I would think people who are dealing with allergies by blowing their noses and rubbing their eyes would be putting themselves at great risk of contracting cold or flu viruses.

Pi

A few months ago, a mathematician got some publicity about using a new computational method of finding the Xth billionth decimal place of Pi (3.14159....). He didn't find where it ends, he just was able to go farther than previous mathematicians in finding it to a smaller and smaller decimal place.

It was mentioned that the decimal numbers that make up Pi have a lot of interesting properties. The numbers are not random, yet there is no known pattern or sequence.

My conjecture is that perhaps this is a clue to something... Pi is just the ratio of a sphere's circumference with its diameter. Yet this simple and universal ratio creates a number with seemingly endless complexity. Wouldn't this be an incredibly elegant way for God to encode the blueprints of the universe? It would be the ultimate DNA.

Don't have a clue about how to decode it though.... In the message boards about this Pi article, people were complaining about the uselessness of this research. Perhaps using some imagination like this can make this research seem more appealing. This research may not lead to something practical any time soon, but is it any less "useful" than researching new long distance golf ball designs? Or new ways to make it easier to open up juice cartoons? Or new beer cans with bigger mouths to allow more efficient drinking??

Some humorous quotes from Seinfeld that I've come across in the last few weeks

This is a quote from George when Jerry was telling George about how he and Elaine started a "friendly arrangement":

See, that's why I don't have cable in my house, because of that naked station, if I had that in my house, I would never turn it off, I wouldn't sleep, I wouldn't eat. Eventually, fireman would have to break through the door. They would find me sitting there in my pajamas with drool coming down my face.

This is from the episode in which Jerry and George first made the "Pact" in which they would become "men" and get serious about women. George then goes on to propose to Susan. But before Jerry could act, Kramer gives some advice to Jerry:

What are you thinking about Jerry? Marriage? Family? They're prisons! Man-made prisons. You're doing time! You get up in the morning; she's there. You go to sleep at night; she's there. It's like you got to ask permission to use the bathroom.

And one of my favorite minor characters, Jackie Childs gives Kramer his opinion on the movie theater's policy of prohibiting outside drinks from being brought in:

Outrageous, egregious, proposterous

Don't usually watch "King of the Hill", but I happened to see one rerun in which Hank came up with a line that I found humorous since it kind of describes my driving. Hank was driving his boss, and his boss praised his careful driving. Hank said his secret is to "treat the gas pedal as if it were an egg".

posted by Ken on 3:15 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, February 02, 2003

 

The Space Shuttle Program

We just experienced another shuttle tragedy. Seventeen years ago, I remembered the first. I was in Florida and saw the smoke in the sky from the explosion. I remember the shuttle program way back in the 70's when they started the first tests of the shuttle. Then my family moved to Florida about 50 miles west-northwest of the Kennedy Space Center. Each launch was quite amazing. I saw one launch from about 10 miles and witnessed many night launches. Another interesting experience was when they landed the shuttle in Florida. Although we couldn't see the shuttle landing, we could hear it's double sonic boom (one caused by its nose and the other caused by it's tail). When I moved to Texas 10 years ago, I thought my physical observations of the shuttle would come to an end. Then about 3 years ago, the shuttle was landing in Florida around 10 p.m. It was scheduled to fly just north of my Texas home. I went outside and expected something like a small jet contrail. Instead the shuttle raced across the sky with a bright intensity at least 20 times brighter than any plane and traveling at least 20 times faster. The ionization caused by re-entry into the atmosphere was much more amazing than what I had expected. The shuttle program has always been a part of my life.

Although the shuttle program has always been part of my life, I have never been that much of a space fan. The shuttle flights are interesting, but they quickly become routine. The experiments they perform are important but never seem much more exciting than experiments performed everyday in businesses across the world. The routine launches of the shuttle usually only get a few news blurbs with only occasional indepth stories. But when a tragedy happens, that changes. The program is put through a microscope. Also, the astronauts who tragically died become heros with their biographies reported and celebrated internationally. During their routine flights, the astronauts seem to be little more than regular scientists or engineers, important contributors but not heros. But after a tragedy, their lives take on a new status. If anything good can come from such a tragedy, it is this focus on the astronauts, their lives, and their quest to explore and take risks in pursuit of science.

When Will Man Return to the Moon?

And when will Man make it to Mars? My prediction is that Man won't return to the Moon this century. I predict it will be 2169 (the 200th anniversary) that Man returns to the Moon. For the first Man trip to Mars, I predict it will be a few decades after our return to the Moon.

Why will it take so long? Looking at last 33 years, the pace of space exploration has slowed greatly. Although some may say space exploration has just changed, in my opinion, it has slowed. 33 years before 1969, it was 1936. Back then there were no jet airplanes. Just flying across the Atlantic was a huge event. 33 years after walking on the Moon, Man is just orbiting the Earth. Albeit, lots of "exploration" is being done with Hubble and the space station. Science is being done. But it is only small increments of progress, no "giant leap" that was done in 1969.

Still asking why is it taking so long? It's not due to the cost or the tragedies. It's mainly from being practical. A lot of science can be done with automated space probes. For Man flights, there isn't a strong case to send Man beyond low-Earth orbit. Low-Earth orbits is all that is needed to build space stations, maintain telescopes like the Hubble, and perform space experiments in micro-gravity environments.

Also, there's a lot of technical challenges sending Man millions of miles away from Earth on Mars-like explorations. Man has to achieve a better energy source than our current chemical fuels. It's proving to be a huge challenge in finding a better fuel. It's been 50 years since research has started on utilizing fusion for energy. Still this seems decades away. If some type of new energy source can be developed that's orders of magnitude more efficient than chemical, the cost-benefit equation for Man space flights would change.

Space Exploration?

Should we even worry about Man space exploration? Other solar systems are so far away, it would take 1000's of years of space travel for Man to visit them. The planets can be explored with automated probes as they have been doing for decades. So why invest the trillions of dollars for traveling to Mars or other planets?

In a very long term perspective, space travel is just an extension to an important principle of life preservation. The survival of any species is greatly improved when that species spreads out. The more spread out the species, the better chance for their long term survival. Modern Man has been "spreading out" for the last 50,000 years or so. Evidence is strong that about 50,000 years ago, Man started populating the Earth from Africa. From DNA evidence, all cultures can trace their ancestors back to Africa. From Aborigines in Australia, to Native Americans, to Europeans, all can be traced back to Africa around 50,000 years ago. (great refereces at PBS.org on Evolution and Journey of Man)

A case can't be made to travel to Mars in the next hundred years just to ensure our species survival. However, it makes sense to continue experiments to travel and live in space. It's not about building a space colony in the next hundred years, it's about a space colony in the next million years. A million years seems like an incredible amount of time, but in the history of the Earth, it's only a tiny fraction of time. Slow and steady progress can get us into space in large numbers. However, we do need milestones that invigorate and motivate us. Each generation needs a "man-on-the-moon" experience to motivate the future scientists and politicians.

Of course this assumes nuclear war or other human or natural disaster does not end our existence first. In the very, very long term, Man's survival has to be away from Earth. Even if we can prevent asteroid disasters, the Sun will only last for 5 more billion years. At that time, it will become a red giant and the Earth will be no more.

One Small Step for a Human, One Giant Leap for People

On a lighter note, you may have noticed my reference to "Man" space exploration. I guess I should really say "human" so I include women. I remember my college English class. My instructor was kind of a feminist and implied there always have been subtle discrimination against women throughtout literature. Uses of words like "man" instead of "people" or "humans" continue this subtle discrimination. My response was "would Neil Armstrong's famous line been as dramatic if he had been PC?" My suggestion is that "man" be used to represent both males and females. Adding "Wo" to "man" gives the English term for an adult female. Why not add "pe" to "man' to give the English term for an adult male? Well... I have a feeling this probably won't win much support....

posted by Ken on 2:39 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, January 26, 2003

 

Value of Views

Last Saturday morning, I did my usual weekend jog at Austin's Townlake. As I was crossing the foot bridge to meet my friends, I witnessed a quite amazing view. The moon was setting over a mansion on a cliff which overlooks Townlake. It was just before sunrise, and the moon was bright with a redish tint. It was a clear and cold morning with steam rising from the lake's surface. It was quite amazing.

This got me thinking. That mansion perched up on that cliff overlooking downtown Austin is probably millions of dollars more just for that view. While I got a great view on the bridge for free. I wonder how much those occupants of that mansion really appreciate their view. When you have to travel somewhere for a view, you will always appreciate it more. When it comes easy, it will always get old.

So don't pay extra for a view. Just be sure you have access to areas with great views, and make it habit to visit those places. When you visit those areas, you will then get your money's worth (especially when the visit is free!).

Engineers and Tattoos

I have never seen an engineer with a tattoo. My theory is that what makes people want to become engineers will also make people not want to get a tattoo. The two desires are opposite of each other. As an engineer, I would never consider getting a tattoo for several reasons: cost, health risk, pain, dislike of needles, fear of being a senior citizen with a tattoo. Perhaps there is some "coolness" with a good tattoo... But I bet for most engineers, the drawbacks greatly outweigh this "coolness".

posted by Ken on 2:52 PM permalink and comments  

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Sunday, January 19, 2003

 

Historic Month for Seinfeld Fans.

Finally saw the rerun of the Puerto Rican Day episode. This was the second to last episode of the Seinfelds. It got a lot of criticism and NBC had decided to not show reruns of it. Don't know how it was handled in syndication, but all I know is that I never have seen it after it was first shown.

The hullabaloo was over Kramer who accidentally set the Puerto Rican flag on fire. It made for a humerous way for Kramer to get in trouble during the parade. I don't know why there were so many complaints. It was just an accident by Kramer (more carelessness with his cigar), and most importantly, it's fiction!

Well, anyway, it was nice to see the episode again. I really liked the part where George gets stalked by the laser pointer guy. It was classic George where he went to the movie while they were stuck in the parade just so he could use a funny line during the explosion of the Hindenburg. The laser pointer guy ruined it for him, and George was all upset at him. Through out the rest of the show, the laser kept popping up on George, and he kept trying to resolve the issue in his classic funny ways.

Can't live only on comedy....Great PBS documentary on the early history of Chicago. website

Pretty amazing seeing how things we take for granted like a sewer system and clean water were so difficult back in the old days. Found it funny how difficult it was for them to build a decent sewer system. In the 1850's it drained into Lake Michigan where they got their drinking water from. So they thought they could fix it by getting water farther offshore with underground pipes. Still didn't work when spring time floods pushed the sewer farther out. So they redirected the Chicago canal to drain south into the Illinois River rather than in Lake Michigan. That way the sewer would be washed downstream away from Lake Michigan. The classic case of throwing your problems over the fence...

Some of my interesting life views...

Often we spend money and time on things that really don't make sense. He are some examples (in my humble opinion):

Why do people think wrinkled clothing looks bad? It's just as clean as ironed and pressed clothing. Why not look at wrinkled clothes as a piece of artwork or a natural beauty. Here's my view of it: Wrinkled shirts are like snowflakes, no two are alike.

Why is it that tanned skin looks appealing to people but tanned teeth looks bad? People want white teeth and tanned skin. What's wrong with white skin and tanned teeth? Tanning is not good for the skin, and there's nothing unhealthy with mild stains on the teeth. Why bother to whitten your teeth and sun bathe? Just change what you consider appealing!

Some of my favorite quotes from the Simpsons that I remembered today:

Homer trying to explain to Marge his excuse for not going to church:
"But what if we picked the wrong religion? Every week we're just making God madder and madder"

Last week on the Simpsons: Homer explaining to Lisa why he thought hiring a PI to learn about her likes and dislikes was a good idea:
"The childless drunks down at Moe's thought it was a good idea"

posted by Ken on 12:14 PM permalink and comments  

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