Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Ok.

So I got it figured out. Finally.

Anyone who watches TV nowadays knows who Glenn Beck is. His antics get more and more insane each week, from quoting statistics that don't exist, to completely distorting the news, and theatrics on camera (crying over TV commercials). Yet as they do, more and more people come to watch him... Hell even I watch his clips online.

And it makes me wonder, could I ever go so far, as to lie to the public, to infuriate them against their own government who is trying to help (yes thats what they're trying to do if nothing else), so far as to call for blood. I mean, sure money and attention will drive some people to do some crazy things in life. Even the sweetest Parent Trap star knows this.

Now quoting Keith Olbermann, "Delusion is a serious illness". He glanced over this saying yesterday on TV, more trying to make a point against Beck... but it got me thinking.


Maybe this is just it. No doubt, Glenn Beck is a smart man. He manages to find links to activities completely unrelated, then twist and embellish to make them seem, as he quotes "coincidental". He then lures the audience to think they're doing something themselves that they are not, come to their own conclusions. It's propaganda at its best and its genius.

But its completely immoral, and its this sort of thinking that his viewers are so adamantly against. If most of them would just read 1984 and Animal Farm, his show would crash faster than a meteor. But why do your own research, when Glenn Beck can do it for you?

PS. I decided to play with links and embeds some. Check them out and let me know if they're busted. Sorry for going to the most liberal of liberal sources, Wikipedia.

Monday, August 31, 2009

Buckets the new Black?

So I've come to decide that buckets are better than briefcases in every way conceivable. By my estimates, I also believe they are older than briefcases. So at what point in time did somebody decide people should carry briefcases instead of buckets? A few arguments...

A. Buckets are cheaper. A super nice bucket with handle and a lid may run you about $10, if you're getting the short end of the stick. A briefcase on the other hand will run you $30 for one that will last about 2 uses, and up to I would guesstimate about $100k for an Italian Leather one, made out of real Italians.

B. Obviously buckets hold solids, but they can also known to few, carry liquids. Now these liquids can be in container themselves, (when was the last time you asked for a Briefcase of Beers?) or just straight take the form of its container. I tested my hypothesis about a briefcase holding liquid as well... and while it can hold liquids, it is tough to keep your job when you offer your colleagues a briefcase of coffee.

C. Buckets have larger volumes per unit surface area. This is a win win to the consumer and producer, the producer has less materials cost, and the consumer gets more utility. While you may be able to produce a flat surface for cheaper than you can a curved one, you can always design a better machine. Try to engineer a better square. Well actually someone did this one time, and it was called a circle.

D. Finally you turn a briefcase upside down and you know what you have? An upside-down briefcase. You turn a bucket upside down and know what you get? A chair? A drum? A cover? A pet bucket?

So my question is, at what point in time did people start carrying briefcases, and why?

Monday, August 24, 2009

All we have to Fear is...

The world is not out to get you. Watch your back, but not so much as to walk into a light pole.

Fear mongering seems to be all the rage in the world today. By assuming people are in no way capable of being responsible for themselves, news sources are able to strike unwarranted fear into their viewers. "Marijuana Farm starts Forest Fires". "Do-it-yourself Meth Formula goes Unchecked"."Death Panels: Will you make the cut?" "Barack Obama a distant cousin of Adolph Hitler?"

The fact is most people out there are not complete idiots. Believe it or not, not all forest fires start in pot fields, but just in case we should triple the size of the DEA. People are smart and a chemistry degree is not that hard to obtain nowadays, so maybe instead of finding people who create Meth labs, we should just eliminate higher education. Because some far fetched interpretation of the Senate Health Care bill could be completely misinterpreted to set up the institution of Death Panels, we should probably scrap the whole thing just to be safe. But I am really drawing a blank on the last one... How is somebody being compared to Franklin D. Roosevelt and Adolph Hitler AT THE SAME TIME? If i look back at the history books... no never mind that would take effort and make too much sense...

Of course, just because an argument doesn't make sense, doesn't mean you should give up so easily. It just means you need to scream louder.

So for the love of John Lennon... next time you see something on TV or the Intrawebz that has a chance of being complete bool sheet, please try to enlighten someone who may actually buy into it.

Friday, August 21, 2009

180°

I watch the news. There I admitted it. With all of the screaming and accusations going on today, I came to realization that it was important to understand not only the sides that I feel are right, but also have an understanding of the feelings that people across from me have, and why they have them.

To do this, I decided to start watching Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC. The first moments of watching Fox and MSNBC made meel feel both uncomfortable and queezy. Uncomfortable in the fact that somebody might see me, queezy in the fact that all around us, people view these pundits' opinions as actual facts. Glenn Beck should really be ashamed of himself.

So many questions can often be solved by the most simplistic of solutions. I began to think of something I learned in 8th grade science. My teacher had asked us what percent of a sphere can we see with our naked eye. I thought for a while, and offered my answer "half". Knowing now that half isn't a percentage, that was wrong... but I had the right idea. My brother corrected me later, saying that would only be true if I had one eye, but I digress.

The way I see it is that people are only able to see half of the circle at any given time. True you can try give them a glimpse by putting up mirror, but then they are always going to see your side backwards. So my question for the millions of people on each side of the fight is, how do you enable them to see the other side, and eventually make them want to walk around?

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Dedication

First of all, I realize how while most people dedicate their blogs, awards, research etc... to a person or group of people, I dedicate this Blog to all people, because it is everyone that makes this possible.

Truth: The world is changing. Scientifically this makes sense because if it were not, we would be at equilibrium, and anyone who has taken freshman biology can imagine why this is bad. Socially this makes sense because anyone who has been outside more than once in the last 100 years has noticed things are not like they were 20, 30, or 2000 years ago.

Too much is going on in this country for anyone person to follow. But these are my takes.

First, people need to come to realize that the ultimate goal of society is to improve the quality of life for everybody. This does not mean increasing personal wealth. The way I see the Dollar working today is that it is not backed by gold, silver, silicon, housing, cars, or food. The U.S. Currency is backed by American's time. I don't know if this has ever been studied by economists, but as simple and straightforward the idea is, I am sure it has. Let me further explain.

For example, you pay $10,000 to remodel your kitchen. What you are paying is not for the cabinets, but for the time of the carpenter who cuts them. He does not pay for the wood, but the lumberjack's time who cuts the tree down, who does not pay for the tree, but the time it takes for a grower to grow a tree. The quicker the grower grows that tree, the more people are able to remodel their kitchen, and jobs are then created. Nowhere in this equation do you find a gold bar.

So instead of seeing the US Government spending money on things like education, healthcare, and infrastructure, look at government spending as an investment in its own citizens. The more time (per day as well as per life) and education each person has, the more productive we can be, and the more our Currency is worth.

No longer are we on the gold standard, but we are on the time standard. My question for you today is, what have you done to help return the government's investment in you?