What They Omit:
“Every day since then has been worse than that day.”

-Chris

I think Parr missed a reference to the old “St. Elmo” at about 2:24, though it may have been intentional. Changing the line to “I can feel Tim Tebow’s fire burning in me” could me misconstrued to mean something Rick Santorum wouldn’t approve of.

-Chris

-Chris

-Chris

After 3 orders, you get a ‘play’ at the game, and you can win credits off future orders, food items, and even free food for a year.  It’s an interesting twist on a standard points-based loyalty program.

(I chose the chocolate cake. Not sure if it’s a coincidence, but I won a free dessert.)

It was a bit glitchy, as it didn’t deduct from my available games right away or show my prize in my account.  I’m sure they’ll work this out.  A few things of note:

-It’s based on orders, not dollars spent.

-This will likely be less costly to them than a passive rewards system, as you have to play the game and use the credits.

-Instead of food prizes, I prefer straight cash, homey.

It’s a good step for my favorite Chicago-based web start-up. Eat up.

-Chris

-Chris

But some of the components used to judge worthiness is nonsensical.  For example,  the LEED certification system gives 3 points for reserving spots for alternative fuel cars like hybrids.   This is kind of BS.

In response, many businesses are reserving spots specifically for hybrid vehicles like the 42 MPG Toyota Prius.  This designation would, I assume, also allow the 21 MPG Cadillac Escalade Hybrid to park there, but not the 33 MPG Honda Civic.

In order to combat this encroachment on my parking spots, I’ve decided to convert my Saab to a hybrid.  It’s not really all that complicated, and it’s pretty cheap.  Here’s what you do:

1. Navigate to ebay.com
2. Search for “Hybrid badge”
3. Select the most awesome looking hybrid car badge.
4. Click “Buy Now”
5. In 4 – 8 business days, affix your awesome hybrid badge to your car.

I decided to go with this sweet number.  For $8.99 shipped, I feel better about the environment already.

-Chris

-Chris

In this view of Jobs, we largely already knew he wasn’t the warm-fuzzy type to work with.  The personal side is nothing remarkable, and similar to that of other driven figures.  He was deeply affected by what we tend to characterize as ‘flaws.’

But we will forgive these things, because he helped create a company that churned out products that enlightened design, raised standards, and will ultimately define a generation. Society would be less forgiving of Jobs’s character had his drive created an oil products  or pharmaceutical empire.

The surly, dynastic traits exhibited Jobs are no different than the likes of Rockefeller, Morgan, and Carnegie. Jobs’s closed systems happened to create products consumers love. The others noted here will be viewed without any romance.  In some regards, they are held up as all that is wrong with capitalism.

The domineering and controlling tendencies amongst moguls spans industries.  Let’s cut the others the same slack (or condemn them equally).

-Chris

We can’t continue to bleed money like we do today.  The -60% gap is very real and very dangerous. The focus of our elected officials should be 100% on growing the economy and cutting spending.  The bottom line needs to be black.  Without that, everything else we are fighting for is moot.

-Chris

Full presentation: here.

Audio from the CNN GOP debate moderated by Anderson Cooper:

“The notion that you are endowed by your creator sets a certain boundary of what we mean by ‘America’. ” –Newt Gingrich, GOP Debate, October 18, 2011

These statements might be the most childish of all.  According to a 2004 BBC poll, roughly 9% of the US population is atheist or agnostic.

The notion that atheist adults cannot have a values system independent of belief in any specific deity is the logic of a simpleton. The common values we share as Americans, many of which are espoused in the Bible, are successful because at the core, they encourage freedom and liberty.  Demanding that someone refer to a specific ‘creator’ as a litmus test for what makes an American is distinctly un-American.

Newt cites the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 as a reference for the intent of the founders.  The main architect of that ordinance, Thomas Jefferson, would surely disagree with Newt’s assessment.

“[N]o man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever…their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.” –Thomas Jefferson,Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, 1779

“The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” –Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781-82

-Chris

If the USPS wanted to accurately price the service and drive more volume, they should adapt a bar code / account system for retail users.  Instead of, or in addition to, selling fixed-price stamps, they should offer users the ability to create an account online, register a credit card (or bank account, PayPal, whatever), and order custom coded stamps.  These stamps would be read by machine, and the USPS would charge back to the account a variable price based on location and weight.

If someone is shipping a letter from New York to Casper, Wyoming, the cost (and the price) should be higher than a person shipping a letter down the street.  If someone put a stamp on a package,  they would apply extra cost for the weight and volume. This system would be flexible enough to apply those costs without making the process cumbersome to the user.

The USPS website would have a rate calculator to approximate the cost if anyone really cared to determine the difference between a $0.50 letter and a $0.61 letter.

These tools are available today for larger businesses, but they should be driven down to the consumer for letters and other small parcel, non-urgent postage.

-Chris

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.”

-Chris

-Chris

“Sorry I’m in pajamas but I just got off the P.J”

-Kanye West, Gotta Have It

I’m usually pretty decent at deciphering meanings from ads.  But I saw this add from Cessna online, and I’m still not quite sure what they are getting at.

I think that, “You’re past the age when anyone should force you to sit up straight” translates to, “Buy this $15 million jet so you can listen to music for 10 minutes while we land.” This copy would work better in a Viagra ad.  I guess it’s the same target demographic…

The ad lands you on this page:

It says,  “Sometimes you hire a top performer. In this case, you buy it.”  Translation: “You’re a baller CEO that can’t be bothered with the time requirements of commercial travel.”

Much better.

-Chris

(This guy was scratching off at least 20 tickets.)

-Chris

Below is a view from  East Quad where I lived for 3 years.

As you can see, the buildings are fairly detailed, and the elevation changes are fairly faithful. The biggest enhancements that will make this model a bit more immersive* are the trees, steps, and other terrain elements not currently present.

-Chris

*”immersive” was flagged on my spell check.  Is this not a real word?  I’m still going to use it.

Link to Denison University on Google Earth (must install Google Earth plug-in)

Today, Illinois passed what’s known as ‘Zach’s Law’ which requires movable soccer goals to be anchored to the ground.  This was championed by the parents of a kid who died when a goal fell on him.

I’m a sympathetic person.  Or maybe I’m not. Whatever. This just seems like an unnecessary law.

While Zach’s death is sad and tragic, it’s hardly a widespread problem. Since 1979, only 36 people have been killed by soccer goals falling on them. That’s 1 per year.  I’d imagine more parents have died of boredom watching 6-year-olds play soccer.*

We can’t keep passing laws like this.  They create societal sclerosis that inhibits productivity and logic.

-Chris

*It’s tough to get good statistics on this.

This is from a company that tries to sue any one that uses the word “app” or the letter “i”.  It’s not so much using the “lion as king of the jungle” reference, but the clear placement of those two words right on top of each other.  I’m pretty sure that’s similar to the argument they used when suing Amazon for using ‘App’ in relation to ‘Store’.

-Chris

If I’m managing the ChapStick brand, I’m pushing my operations and packaging folks for a better way.  There are probably thousands of ChapSticks running around naked because the user pulled off the label.  That’s not exactly a good way to spread the brand.

-Chris

*Except the foo-foo Whole Foods types who only buy Burt’s Bees.

But is it correct?

Scientific American recently posted an article that highlights the struggle to find a correlative link between sodium intake and heart health.   According to the report, “for every study that suggests that salt is unhealthy, another does not.”  Surprisingly, many studies show heart health improves with greater sodium intake.

I’m pretty sure what is driving the low-sodium craze is the war on trans fats.  The special interests that lobbied for so long to get those out of our foods have won, and they now need to find another thing to occupy themselves.  They are a solution without a problem.

Our kidneys do a fantastic job of filtering excess sodium. As with excess vitamin C, you’ll just typically pee out the extra sodium.  Further research will reveal that high salt intake is correlated with eating McDonald’s and fried chicken every day.*  It’s kind of like this chart:

Eating a lot of saturated and trans fat will fill your blood vessels with goop.  Eating and drinking a lot of sodium will just give you salty pee.

I’m not saying my hypothesis is any more valid than the ‘salt is killing America’ group.  However, it is completely arbitrary for anyone to call for regulation to limit salt in foods.  If there’s no defined correlation to infer causation, we are just making stuff up.

What we really need is a longitudinal study of critical mass to evaluate the issue.  But that probably won’t happen.

-Chris

*Rule of thumb: any group with a name like ‘Center for Science in the Public Interest’ should be treated with great suspicion.

*The Intersalt study found that both alcohol intake and body mass index exhibited statistically significant relations to blood pressure.  The same was not found with salt intake.

Let’s use an example:

-Search for 181 W Madison St, Chicago, IL 60602.

-Zoom in all the way.

-Try to find the names of any of the three roads that would make up an identifiable intersection (ex. “Let’s meet at Madison and X”)

Without panning around, you can’t.  No street names appear in the window.

Let’s find the name the name of the east-west road. If you:

-Pan west, you’ll see the name “Madison St” in 2 blocks.

-Pan east, you’ll search over 6 blocks and a park, and you’ll eventually hit Lake Michigan without finding the name.

How about the north-south road directly to the east of our marker:

-Pan north, you’ll find “LaSalle Street” in 2.5 blocks.

-Pan south, you’ll run into the Chicago Board of Trade without finding the name.

And the north-south road directly west of the marker:

-Pan north, you’ll go 8 blocks into the Chicago River and find “Wells St.”

-Pan south, you’ll go 8 blocks to find “Wells St.”

It seems like Google could make the street names a bit more dynamic.  If I’m zoomed into an area, that area should contain the relevant street names.  I’m sure it’s a tricky problem to solve, but it’s a terribly annoying one.

-Chris

The graph below provides a bit of a better view of what we need to do to solve the issue of persistent unemployment.*  Those with college degrees, especially Bachelor’s and higher, are doing alright.  The huge drop-off comes from those without a college education.  Our economy’s value drivers have shifted, but the American workforce is not prepared to meet the needs.

The manufacturing jobs that have been lost aren’t coming back.  The unions that claim to be fighting for the workers they represent are exacerbating the rate of decline.  Those workers who have been laid off are not the same workers who are qualified to be hired for the new jobs in the new economy.

At the top right of the graph, you’ll see our newly minted lawyers. While this is a bit misleading, as they will likely find jobs within the year, the % employed at graduation is at it’s lowest since the early 90′s (which also came on the heels of a recession). Advice to those recent college grads struggling to find work? Unless you want to be a lawyer, don’t go to law school. It’s by no means a sure path to the ‘land of milk and honey.’ *

-Chris

*The data here is the average of 2010. The June 2011 unemployment average is up to 9.2%.

*But it is a sure path to $100k in student loans!

Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics , National Association for Law Placement

-Chris