How come I don't feel stimulated?

So, I'm sure by now you have heard about the latest in Economic Stimulus plans but I can't help but outline a recent quote.

"Poor people just spend money faster, because they're really living at the edge,"

Call me callous but I'm ready for the Age old Eskimo tradition.

Granted, my outlook would probably be vastly different if I were on the other side of the fence but I like to think my decisions have allowed me the advantages of staying with the herd.

Did Eskimos really put their elderly out on the ice to die during tough times?

Yes, in the past some Eskimos did kill old people when circumstances were sufficiently desperate.

Where it was practiced, senilicide was rare except during famines. As long as there was enough food to go around, everyone got their share, including the relatively unproductive. Given that the usual diet consisted of fairly dependable catches of caribou, fish, and sea mammals, many years could pass between episodes of scarcity.

On the other hand, when food did run short, the old and sick were looked upon as drains on the community's resources. Sometimes they were killed - thrown into the sea, buried alive, locked out in the cold, or starved to death. Far more commonly they were simply abandoned to die. The victim might be taken out in the wilderness and left there, or the whole village might pick up and move away while the old person slept. If the villagers were unexpectedly restored to prosperity, they might go back to rescue those left behind. An abandoned person would also be welcomed back as a full member of the community if he could manage to make his way back to the village on his own. But usually he couldn't.

Ok, I can fully support that last sentence but please stop the bleeding.

Food stamps, tax breaks for poor in stimulus bill

More than 37 million Americans live in poverty, and the vast majority of them are in line for extra help under the giant stimulus package coming out of Congress. Millions more could be kept from slipping into poverty by the economic lifeline.

People who get food stamps — 30 million and growing — will get more. People drawing unemployment checks — 4.8 million and growing — would get an extra $25, and keep those checks coming longer. People who get Supplemental Security Income — 7 million poor Americans who are elderly, blind or disabled — would get one-time extra payments of $250.

Many low-income Americans also are likely to benefit from a trifecta of tax credits: expansions to the existing Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit, and a new refundable tax credit for workers. Taken together, the three credits are expected to keep more than 2 million Americans from falling into poverty, including more than 800,000 children, according to the private Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The package also includes $3 billion emergency fund to provide temporary assistance to needy families.

There are other, more indirect ways that the stimulus package is likely to benefit poor people.

For example, cash-strapped states will get an infusion of $87 billion for Medicaid, the government health program for poor people, and that should help them avoid cutting off benefits to the needy. In addition, more federal dollars will flow to high-poverty areas for education programs and preventing homelessness.

Advocates for the poor say that directing stimulus money to the neediest Americans makes sense because they're the most likely to put cash back into the economy quickly.

"Poor people just spend money faster, because they're really living at the edge," said Elizabeth Lower-Basch, a senior policy analyst at the private Center for Law and Social Policy.

AI Needs a Makeover

Feb 20, 2009 EDIT 2

So obviously the producers may have listened to the fans but this sure feels like a campaign to me. I can understand some back stories but selling someone as the "savior" please.

here's a snippet taken from this article

All right, all right. In all seriousness, it's not Danny Gokey's fault that Ken Warwick & Co. love him more than Ford, Coca-Cola, and AT&T combined. But it's been absolutely bizarre watching the Idol Machine's early and overzealous campaign on behalf of a contestant who'd most likely have cracked the top 12 without the added help. And what's worse is that said campaigning is being done at the expense of both the show's integrity and dramatic resonance.

WOW, they really need to tone down the "we have you all wrapped up to make records for us"

It is because of this over dramatic "Selling" of certain contestants that I admire Taylor Hicks.

"Taylor who?" You know the Soul Patrol dude that refused to be involved in any tours or anything connected to the show and now he's all but gone the way of Ruben Studdard, but at least he didn't use the death of a family member to sell himself to the world.

He knew he coasted on the popularity vote and that he wasn't actually the best singer.

Jan 13, 2009 EDIT:

Ok, after watching the first episode of the new season, you can tell the producers listened to the critics and the fans.

In fact, there is a great article about the changes for the new season.

I will summarize for those short on time.

1. Fewer Trainwrecks - less "She Bangs, She Bangs" and more "A Moment Like This"

2. Character Development - Eeek, here come the tearful backstories

3. Wild Card Round - Ohh ohh, it's back, the judges pick 3 of the final 12

4. Goodbye affirmitive action, hello hotties! The top 12 won't necessarily be gender equal

5. New Judge - Welcome Kara DioGuardi - is this the beginning of the end for Paula?

6. About time - Finally the Wed results will only be 30 minutes

So far, I like the proposed changes, but we will see if it actually makes the show any better.



Ok, I'm a reality TV junkie, I admit it. I'm probably the only person that records both Girlicious and Ultimate Fighter.

Never have I been less interested however, than this year's American Idol.

Sure, it's still #1 in the ratings. Of course, it's still fun making fun of Paula (I'm smashed out of my mind) Abdul but they need some help.

Coincidentally a collegue and I were discussing this at lunch and she pointed me to a great article by Mark Harris from EW.com

The link to the full article is above but he had 7 really good points I thought I would share for anyone that is as bored as I am.

1. Tone down the product placement.
Tell Ford and Coke that if they want to buy an ad, they can buy an ad. Not redecorate the red room with bottle silhouettes, and not drag the contestants through another cruddy commercial while all lyric-botching evidence implies they should be rehearsing. American Idol is still TV's top show; would the whole enterprise really cave in if Fox stopped treating it like a QVC infomercial?

2. Devise a dignified exit strategy for Paula and Randy.
It's time. His autopilot appraisals — ''It was just all right for me,'' ''You worked it out,'' ''You did your thing'' — constitute as slothful a dereliction of duty as her inability to...well, I suddenly forgot my thoughts about Paula, but you look beautiful tonight, and you are always...so connected to the specialness that is...what you bring to you. (Cue applause. And call 911!) Yes, their portrayals of themselves are very convincing. (They're acting, right?) But no tears, since they both have enough money to keep themselves in bling and small dogs until the rapture. Now how about two judges who can listen to the contestants sing and offer quick, sharp critiques? No whining that it's hard — we all do it at home every week. Oh, and ban the judges from dress rehearsals. They should form their opinions at the same time we do.

3. Pick fewer — and fresher — ''mentors.''
Dolly Parton rules, but did so many of this season's greats have to be older than Dumbledore? When American Idol becomes about sixtysomethings coaching teenagers on how to sing ''Cracklin' Rosie,'' a rather large swath of pop-music history is being ignored. Conversely, more challenging, inventively themed hours might yield some surprises — after all, Kelly Clarkson, the Meryl Streep of Idol, broke through on Big Band Night, and Fantasia Barrino essentially won by shattering the show's formula with ''Summertime.'' Similar changeups might reward competitors who like to explore music, not just make pretty sounds. Speaking of which...

4. Raise the minimum contestant age to 18.
It's never fun to see a stage kid's deer-in-the-headlights look (remember Kevin ''Chicken Little'' Covais?). David Archuleta has a beautiful voice, but rarely has a talented singer been less fun to watch; too young to make (and too timid to explain) his own choices, he looks like a kid quaking outside the principal's office every time he's judged. In a few years, he'll be a better singer with more to say for himself; meanwhile, the High School Musical vibe around him panders to the speed-texting teen demographic at the expense of everyone else. Oh, damn it, did I just write something mean about David Archuleta? America, flag, God, freedom, the troops! I hope I won you back, because I have three points left.

5. Stop the medley madness!
If Idol is meant to create future pop stars, it's time to rethink those elimination-night up-with-people medleys. We know you have an hour to fill, so how about filling it by revealing the actual vote totals, from top to bottom? Producers claim this would ruin the suspense (because right now, NOBODY SUSPECTS the two Davids have been getting a lot of votes); on the contrary, being able to track the progress of your favorite might energize the constituencies of some middle- or bottom-dwelling singers. In any case, those Brady Bunch Variety Hourgroup sing-alongs are credibility grenades tossed at the winner's future career. Sex tapes on TMZ are less mortifying.

6. The Delta Sigma Bimbo hand-waving mosh pit must go. Forever.

7. Less talking, more singing.
Why are song performances only 90 seconds? Are you looking for someone who can actually sing, or just a pretty robot who can race to an unmotivated money-note climax in record time?

Now personally I would add

8. More Hot Girls
Why on earth would I watch the battle of the David's? Battle of the Cindy's on the other hand...

Let me Google That For You

My friend Betty showed me this cool new service and Bex's latest post inspired me to write about it here. In his post he says this:

"People usually don't want to know the answer, people usually want to know who knows the answer....
In general, people don't really want the information they are looking for; they just want to do their jobs."

Interesting, I took this one step further and put those two lines together.

In general people don't really want the information nor do they really want to do their jobs, they just want to know who will do their job for them and still collect a paycheck.

Having someone else tell you the answer still gets YOU the answer, as sad as that is.

Therefore, the next time someone asks you a question and you eventually find the answer on the web, instead of giving them the answer or the sending them the link, send them the link from the service below.

Here's an example

"Hey Cordell, how many pints are there in a gallon?"

"Hey Bob here's your answer"
LINK

Click the image below to try it out yourself.

OMG Happy Friday

Ok, don't ask just stick around for the solo that starts at 3:40, it's worth it

Why do we still have the Penny?

I was sorting through a big pile of change I had and I kept wondering why do we still have the penny?

If you are still a fan of the penny maybe you should read this



Citizens for Retiring the Penny

The penny no longer facilitates commerce

Inflation has eaten away at the value of the penny to such a degree that it no longer facilitates commerce. The fact that the penny is still in circulation does not mean that it is useful. If the half penny were minted then it too would be in circulation, even though it would be nothing but a nuisance. The half penny was eliminated in 1858, when it was worth over ten times what the penny is worth today. Assuming that the timing was correct before, this means that we should have eliminated the penny fifty years ago. The penny is now worth so little that nobody even picks it up off the ground, despite the old "lucky penny" adage.

Even if you agree that the penny doesn't serve any useful function, you may still argue that it is not worth the hassle of retiring it. A reasonable question is therefore: What harm is caused by continuing to mint the penny?

1) Waste of money: The US mint produces about 7 billion pennies every year (roughly half of all coins made each year), at a cost of over $100 million dollars. About one-third of this money is used to pay for the zinc that pennies are made out of, which is why the zinc industry is lobbying to keep the penny in production.

2) Waste of time: Most cash transactions involve the exchange of pennies, leading to an increase in the time for the transaction to take place. The National Association of Convenience Stores and Walgreen's drug store chain estimated that handling pennies adds 2 to 2.5 seconds to each cash transaction (remember that we are including the occasional customer who spends 30 seconds looking for the penny in his pocket).

Let us estimate that each person goes through two of these transactions per day and that on average there is one person waiting in line (making for a total of three people's time wasted in each transaction). We can then calculate that the presence of pennies wastes (2 transactions/day) X (2 seconds/transaction) X (3 people per transaction) = 12 seconds per day, or 1.2 hours per person per year. Of course, when you get home you still have to find something to do with your pennies, meaning that probably only about half of the wasted time is directly connected with a cash transaction (the other time is associated with counting pennies etc), giving a total of 2.4 wasted hours per person per year. The mean wage in the US is approximately $17/hour, implying that each of us is effectively "paying" $40 per year to keep pennies in circulation. Given that the US has ~ 240 million adults, using pennies is currently costing the nation $10 billion per year!

Check out Google Latitude

Privacy Schmivacy, from a dad with a 7 yr old daughter, I have been waiting for something like this for a long time.

Last week Google Launched a new service called Google Latitude

Basically through triangulation it allows you to pinpoint anyone on the earth and place a pin on a Google Map. Obviously there are already outcries of "Ohh no here comes Big Brother" but personally I think this is very cool. Especially when taking a trip to Vegas with a bunch of "poker" buddies.

The Best Example of Web 2.0 EVER

Thank god for the internet and people with way too much time on their hands

Are you Unemployed?

Don't worry as long as you are hot you can suck at your job.

For the second time this week this theory has been proven.

The latest comes from this headline

Leryn Franco Lands Deal With Nike

Let me guess you've never heard of Leryn Franco?

Maybe this will help

The first example was from this year's American Idol

Contestant Katrina Darrel (who can't actually sing that well) Actually made it through the audition by wearing a bikini. Not only did she make it through the prelims she actually passed day 1 of Hollywood week, although Paula and Kara were not very happy about it.

Further proves that if you're hot enough you can pretty much suck at everything else.





Edit: Offers are coming in faster than she was kicked off the show.

Idol's’ Bikini Girl weighing Playboy offer

The Internet as Reference Tool

So, I was looking through some old books the other day and I ran across my copy of

"Hoyle's Rules of Games"

Hmmm, I said to myself "Self, I haven't opened that book in years." I wonder why not?

I thought of two immediate reasons

1. I don't play those games or need the read the rules
2. Anything I need in that book can be found on the interweb and since I haven't backpacked in 5 years, I'm always close to a computer or cell phone with a net connection.

My point is this.

Some may argue that the internet has become a much more compact reference library, especially for something as simple as the rules to a game.

Unless of course this was a signed copy by Hoyle himself...It's not.

Therefore, I challenged myself to pick 3 games at random from this book and see how long it took me to find the rules on the web.

Ready, Set, Go!

Klabberjass -11 seconds and only because I had a typo and had to use the Google "Did you mean" feature

Skat - 6 seconds

Poker - Geez, unlucky randomness that I opened the book to this chapter. Thrown out for lack of specificity.

Hearts - 15 seconds, I actually found a page quicker but liked the wikipedia page better

I rest my case.

Anyone want a slightly used copy of this book? Going once, going twice, recycled.