Shit you probably don't need to know

cover letter

2012-06-06T11:24:00.001-07:00

Every team needs a mascot and a cheerleader, I am still that guy. In many ways I am the epitome of nontraditional, from my eclectic college career to my quixotic philosophy of liberaltarianism. This nontraditional nature engenders trust with most all employees making me an ideal and effective go between for office disputes. My genial nature and aptitude for seeing "both sides" of an argument make me an ideal candidate for busy high stress environments.

Conversely I am also likely to be the guy who plays devils advocate because no one likes an echo chamber. Couple that with my wiki-like knowledge base and assertive personality and I, more than your normative individual, am the right candidate for the job because no matter what it is, or who is in the way, I will get it done.

You told me a few years back to get a hold of you when I finally graduated and I finally have Gabe. I have a degree in Journalism and a boat load of credits in Anthropology and Political science which I think would be perfect for writing for The American Prospect.

I would love to be a part of your team either as a freelancer or as a staffer. Attached are a few pieces that I have written, feel free to use them if you can.

What happened to Mike?

2012-06-06T10:06:00.002-07:00

Everyone knew something was up Thursday May 22 when Mike Savin failed to show up for class a second time in the same week. Having never missed a class the previous trimester, even when visibly ill, it was disconcerting to students.

The fill in professors, Brigid Bacus and Marci Bailey, assured students that it would be okay and that Mike was just sick.

Students in Chemistry 222 found out May 29, a full week later and past the deadline to drop with a “W," that Savin had resigned. The exact why of his resignation was never articulated. Rumors abound as to why a well liked and respected instructor would simply leave three weeks before the end of the term.

Had students been told the day Savin resigned, that he had resigned, it would have been possible for any in the class to drop with a W if they so chose. However, since Backus and Bailey did not inform the students of Savin's resignation until after the deadline to drop, such an option was precluded.

Bailey claimed that she could make no comment on the situation and Backus claimed to know nothing other than that she was filling in for Savin for the rest of the term.

Numerous students were unwilling to make any comments on the record for fear of reprisals from the chemistry department. Students expressed everything from fear of being personally targeted for merely speaking positively about Savin, to fear of the evening class as a whole being targeted to prove that Savin was not fulfilling his contractual obligations.

Two students who had no fear of speaking up were Gil South and Jason. Both felt that Savin was an excellent instructor and that the chemistry department at LBCC would suffer from the loss. Both reached out to Savin to let him know that they appreciated his service and time and that they were sorry that he would no longer be teaching at LBCC. Both emphatically felt like blame for his departure should be placed on the department and not on Savin.

Instructor Savin also made no comment. Savin has taught high school chemistry, college chemistry, is currently an assistant at the Oregon State University chemistry department and tutors in the Mole Hole.

At a Glance

Professor leaves suddenly right before finals and no one is talking, not even the students.

Mike Savins Linkedin profile

Mole Hole Schedule

Linn Benton Chemistry Department

Field Trip

2012-05-23T13:13:00.003-07:00

Spent class at the Democrat Herald in Albany today. Pictures and video are up on Google plus https://plus.google.com/u/0/109398421611492546729/posts/MtfMgJEr8Vo

Profile of an Occupier

2012-05-21T13:38:00.005-07:00

http://www.interzoneorganic.com/

We have all seen them on the nightly news, on youtube, twitter, and of course facebook. The amorphous but vocal Occupy movement that started back in 2011 in Zuccotti Park. The movement is still active globally, and Occupiers of all colors and nationalities can be found everywhere from Spain to right here in Corvallis. But who exactly are these occupiers, what do they want, and why are they here?

I sat down with one such occupier, Eric Coker, at the local Interzone campus coffee shop to see exactly what it was that motivated him to join the Occupation over other social justice movements or political movements. He arrived on time and dressed like a normal adult college students in cargo shorts and a t-shirt.

An educated and articulate man Eric isn’t the picture of the Occupation most of us are use to seeing on our screens. Absent are the Guy Fawkes masks, dreadlocks,protest language, and gauged earrings while the passion for social justice, social equality, and pragmatism remains.

When asked about almost any social or economic issue Eric had a ready and articulate answer. When asked about how some have pointed out that many of the occupiers are from a privileged class and that protesting economic inequality from one’s IPAD was inherently hypocritical, Eric strongly disagreed. "We are all part of the privileged class and being a part of the privleged class does not prevent one from commenting on social inequalities", he said.

He felt that the Occupy movement recognized the privilege of race, gender, and economic status by virtue of birth, and that other groups by not recognizing these things could never solve the problems that are besetting our nation.

He also stressed that being part of the privileged class does not preclude one from pointing out the inherent social injustice of the society in which one lives. If anything he felt that it was the civic responsibility of the privileged classes to come to the aid of those who were either less fortunate by virtue of their birth or by virtue of the baked in inequality of our current consumption based economic system.

Unlike what has been primarily distributed over the web Eric was quick to emphasize the need for cooperation and bridge building between faith groups, political groups, and social justice groups versus the need for more protesting. "While it might get me in trouble i do recognize that there is certain amount of overlap between the Tea party and Occupy." Eric pointed out however that the Occupy chapter in Salem had tried to have a group meeting with the Tea Party but that it had broken down because of the wide differences of opinion on basic terms and on social wedge issues.

Wedge issues and social rights issues were the primary reason that Eric became involved with the Occupy movement. While both of the movements are populist in rhetoric, they differ very widely on the social issues from women's rights and homosexuality, to the death penalty and other social rights issues. The one thing Eric was vehement about was that Occupy and he were not bound to any one party or ideology, "I support whatever works, it is not about ideology it is about practicality" he said.

While he and the greater Occupy movement do see political protest as a viable means of civic engagement, it clearly isn’t the only methodology they are following.

At the recent city council meeting where they gave a presentation on why the city of corvallis should be moving their money. Instead of playing the Code Pink obstruction game of distraction and disturbance the occupiers, almost ironically, waited their turn, gave articulate speeches when called upon, and only during a natural lull in the meeting did they quickly chant, “Move Our Money” and link arms with “duct tape” chains.

Aside from actions against the banking industry Occupy and occupiers like Eric are interested in social justice and social equality.

One of the main drivers of Eric and Occupy is a passion for social justice, and this is something that is not just rhetorical. Occupy Corvallis is actively working to try and improve the living conditions of the homeless by helping to bridge communication gaps between City hall and main street and by networking with existing social justice groups. One such action is going to be a meeting with the chief of police and the mayor where suggestions will be made to try and discourage police from abusing and profiling the homeless while also offering solutions to help in transferring homeless individuals back into productive society..

At a glance

Eric Coker contact info escoker@gmail.com
Occupy Covallis http://www.facebook.com/owscorvallis
http://business.time.com/2012/05/18/was-nick-hanauers-ted-talk-on-income-inequality-too-rich-for-rich-people/

City Council meeting 4/7/2012

2012-05-09T11:08:00.002-07:00

This week’s council meeting was particularly exciting for two reasons, the Corvallis chapter of Occupy Wall Street was there to encourage the city of Corvallis to move their money out of Wells Fargo and the council approved the Open Spaces Amendment in regards to the Seavey Meadows easement.

The Occupiers central message was that the City of Corvallis current deposits city revenue at Wells Fargo, a multinational corporation with the highest share of housing mortgages in the United States and at the heart of the current economic crisis.

A media organizer for Corvallis Occupy, Eric Coker, told the counselors that Corvallis needs to move our money to smaller and more local and ethical financial institutions is a means to stimulate and strengthen local economic ties within the community, and that will ultimately improve the local economy and foster community cohesion.

While the Mayor and councilors were cordial to the Occupiers, ultimately the realities of modern economics and regulations prevent cities like Corvallis from moving their money because of existing federal and state regulations. At the end of the public comment, a "mic check" was called for, the Occupiers loudly chanted, with their hands "linked" together by duct-tape, about how we are enslaved to corporations and wall street.

The truly exciting event however was Patricia Muir's final victory, after 20 years, in getting the open space amendment passed for the seavey meadows. This amendment will save thirty acres of wetlands and will ensure that it remains open for public use.

Given that the city of corvallis is short of open land, per its state goals, this amendment benefits not just the local ecology but will also ensure that Corvallis maintains compliance with its stated development goals. The land in question is owned by the city of corvallis, and has been since the property developer went bankrupt and ceded the property back to the city. Mrs. Muir, and her daughters, have been fighting to keep this land public, open, and to curtail urban sprawl for the last twenty years.

Laura King was also there and testified about how her and her daughters had been enjoying the open space and beautiful wetlands for the last fifteen years. She mentioned how much she enjoyed hearing the frogs and crickets in the evening. Mrs. King is no flower child, she is a hydrological engineer and understand the need for wetlands better than most, especially in regards to waste water management.

No counselors spoke in opposition to the amendment and it passed unanimously. Sometimes the road is long but the goal is worthy.

At a glance
http://bpp.oregonstate.edu/muir - Patricia Muir’s official Oregon state page
http://archive.ci.corvallis.or.us/docview.aspx?id=330811 - Notice for Seavey Meadows Open space amendment
http://www.owscorvallis.com/mainstreet/ - Corvallis Occupy official page

Contact for persons interested in being active with the local Occupy movement:

Eric Coker (Organizer & Media), Occupy Corvallis, escoker@gmail.com, (206)-235-2859

Stephanie Hampton (Media), Occupy Corvallis occupystephanie@yahoo.com

Can you see me now?

2012-04-27T10:44:00.000-07:00

You can’t measure what you can’t see best sums up the government's view on community college graduation rates and is at the core of the report and action plan released two weeks ago.

According to the report, about 37 percent of full-time, first-time students receive a degree or certificate within four years of beginning their studies. “Not all students take a linear path in their pursuit of higher education,” said Education Secretary Arne Duncan. “Many students work full-time and are balancing family obligations while also attending school. These new outcome measures will accurately demonstrate how postsecondary schools are preparing students for success in different ways.”

These changes to reporting may increase the bureaucratic requirements of institutions like Linn Benton Community College, but they may also open up additional avenues for funding and will give accrediting and ratings agencies a better idea of how well a given institution is performing.

LBCC is already collecting some of this information for in house policy analysis, the Department of Institutional Research has information on gainful employment, follow ups with recent graduates, and studies on debt to employment ratios, up to this point the Department of Education(DOE) only required information on first time, full time students.

According to Bruce Clemetsen, the Vice President of Student services here at LBCC, roughly 50% of the students at LBCC are full time, but many of those students are here because of the relationship with OSU and are not counted for Linn Benton’s official graduation statistics.

Under the old rules almost half of LBCC students were not counted, regardless of whether or not they graduated. In fact students who start at Linn Benton community college but then transfered to a 4 year institution or another community college were not counted in the statistics for LBCC. All of this leads to a very fragmented and incomplete picture being sent back to the DOE.
These changes in rerpoting will enable LBCC and other community colleges to show off their community programs, that are invaluable to locals, but have up to this point not counted in the official statistics.

One such program here at LBCC is the Waste Water treatment program, after speaking with industry LBCC learned, according to Bruce Clemetsen, that water treatment plants tend to be public utilities and that industry needed more workers who have education in not just water treatment, but also public works.
As a consequence, next year the Waste Water treatment program will be rolled into an entry level Public Works degree with Waste Water treatment as a certification within the overall degree plan. This adds flexibility to the degree program while meeting an industry and community need.

Through LBCC connections with local industry, this program has morphed into a much more successful and adaptive degree. This program, and others like it, represent the kinds of innovations that community colleges can bring to the educational market place. By listening to not just the students, but to industry, colleges can provide a better service for students and also for the larger community. But if the DOE isn’t looking, it won’t know it, which is what makes these rules changes so important. By looking at non-traditional students, non-full time students, and students who didn’t start at the “beginning of the year”, the DOE, will be able to see the value that community colleges are bringing not just to their communities, but to the nation as a whole by providing the skills and training necessary to fulfill the demands of an ever changing marketplace.

These changes to rules may also have the unintended beneficial consequence of facilitating additional relationships like the one that LBCC has with Chemeketa community college and will help to prevent overlap and redundancy in the educational market. Due to budget cuts certain programs have had to either be curtailed or cut back, in order to ensure that the community’s needs were met. LBCC reached out to Chemeketa community college and convinced them to offer EMT training in this area, in return LBCC sold them their existing equipment and made the arrangements to have Chemeketa teach the programs here as well. This way resources are freed up for LBCC to teach other valuable programs while also ensuring that the communities need were still met.

Like with all things there is a tension between spending money on committees and research groups to parse the schools data and the need to spend that money on actual education.

Hopefully, these changes in reporting will strike a balance that benefits all parties involved while fostering an environment that will facilitate the education of tomorrow's leaders and community organizers.

At a Glance

Department of Education Final Report on changes to guidlines and reporting - http://www2.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/cmss-committee-report-final.pdf

Department of education Press release on the Action plan -

http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/education-department-releases-action-plan-improve-measures-postsecondary-success

The Action plan - http://www.ed.gov/edblogs/ous/files/2012/03/Action-Plan-for-Improving-Measures-of-Postsecondary-Student-Success-FINAL2.pdf

LBCC Department of Institutional Research - http://www.linnbenton.edu/go/ir

What's with the WiFi on campus?

2012-04-13T08:44:00.003-07:00

In the internet age nothing can be more frustrating than sitting next to someone online and being unable to get online yourself despite having the requisite technology to do so. In classrooms and hallways across LBCC campus WiFi deadzones abound, and many a wary student has fallen into one while attempting to retrieve their homework online while walking down a hallway or trying to look up a source for a paper in class.

Sitting between two Mac uses, one student on a Macbook Pro and another on an IPAD 3. One begins to wonder why some devices have no issue connecting to LBCC wireless portal and others couldn’t connect if their life depended on it. Zipping along on a Samsung Galaxy tab, thank you LB bookstore, my neighbor , asks “Are you online, because I can’t seem to connect and it is really frustrating”.

While the Galaxy tab had no problem at all connecting to LBCC’s web-portal both of the Mac users were able to see the wireless connection but were unable to connect to LB’s webportal. The two students looked like kids standing outside of a candy shop with no money to spend on the delicious morsels just a glass panel away. Chad said that he was especially frustrated because he finds that without the ability to look at his notes and homework while the professor is lecturing, which is only available online, he doesn’t do as well.

Russ Rinker, LBCC Assistant Director of Information services, said that he was sorry to hear that the wireless was not living up to student expectations, but that the WiFi coverage is a work in progress, constantly being expanded and enhanced to provide better coverage and more access points. As many students have found, often to their disappointment, LBCC’s wireless is quite far from pervasive, but considering that it is provided as a free service, one has to ask if beggars are trying to be choosers?

One student felt that the wireless coverage was most sparse in the Madrone hall and the White Oak Hall, especially on the second floor, but was excellent in the Atrium. It was in the Madrone Hall, room 208, that the issue of WiFi coverage became a real issue for this because he was sitting right next to someone that had no issue at all with connecting to the web. It made him feel, “very frustrated and blown away that there wasn’t 100% pervasive coverage at LB.” He said that coming from Oregon University he was used to pervasive WiFi, even at his car, and that he was shocked when he came to LB last trimester and was unable to access his notes online despite being in class.

Mr. Rinker said that there were no major problems for student in terms of connection issues and that the WiFi network is comprised of very standard 802.11g wireless access points. Of course, every computer, tablet, and smartphone is different, and we only give general help to solve these kinds of problems. Students are encouraged to speak with the IT department, they are eager to hear from you about where dead zones are and aren’t.

Many students don’t know that the LBCC IT department wants to hear from the students, if you have any suggestions or know of any dead zones please make sure to contact the IT department either via the help desk or via their website. Students may also not be aware, but LBCC provides WiFi services at no charge, Jason said that he would be willing to pay 15 or 20 dollars a trimester. If that meant that the IT department would have the funds to ensure pervasive WiFi for all of LBCC campuses you would be in favor of the extra fee? If so make sure to let the school know, or the IT department.

At a Glance:

Russell Rinker the Assistant Director, Information Services can be reached at (541) 917-4363

The LBCC Computer and Networking Systems Staff is a great place to start if you are looking to get
into contact with the people who work to ensure LBCC has a first class IT support structure.

if you have any Suggestions please contact the  

Linn Benton IT department website

Newspapers aren't dead, but they do need to innovate

2012-02-26T22:06:00.000-08:00

The drop in newspaper monthly circulations is no industry secret. For the last several years the industry has been unable to adapt its business model to changing circumstances, namely the Internet. One has to ask themselves though, why is this, why is it that one of the most popular reading materials has suddenly fallen so out of favor with its constituents. The only thing comparable is the drop from some 70% of the population going out to the movies in the 50s to 25% in 2010. Is News just not as valuable in the age of social media, blogs, and twitter? Given that we still love narratives, and that it is generally accepted that the failure of the theater industry stems from a failure to adapt to technology. I think that rather than News itself not being valuable, it is the industry that has simply failed to adapt and innovate.

The real reason we get the Sunday edition

For this discussion I picked up a copy of a local news paper, The Oregonian, which I felt would serve as a good case study. The Oregonian newspaper is a typical local newspaper that caters to a very diverse set of interests within the State. Like most state news papers it has been effected by the Times/Wapo effect,its "GUI" is more or less the same as any other physical news paper, headline over photo followed by a block of text that is either wider than it is tall or taller than it is wide. Most of the weaknesses of print media are either former strengths or failures to adapt. The format of news papers was decided long before most of the people writing were alive and as a consequence is fairly standardized, this was a strength before because of the limited space of physical newspaper, but in digital age it just can't compete with the scrolling window and hyperlink format.

Because of the success of this particular design and the National effect on State newspapers(thank god Newspaper industry lawyers aren't as smart as Apple lawyers) almost all newspapers look more or less identical. They tend to differentiate via brand recognition, quality of photography and tightness of prose within the publication itself. That being said its quite clear that this is a State newspaper, although one that isn't doing too badly. The photos are large and full color but they definitely pale in comparison to larger national newspapers. One the Oregonian's biggest strengths in comparison to the Times can be seen in the photo to the left. The Oregonian, unlike most newspapers, has teamed up with Politifact to let their readers know that the story have been vetted for accuracy, and not by some partisan hack group but by a generally accepted neutral third party. If you click on the photo you can clearly seen Politifact's logo and their truthiness meter.

It is also clearly not a small town newspaper as the language used is fairly standard and grammatical errors were not found in abundance. Where the Oregonian stands out from other small state newspapers is its App available in both the Itunes and Android Market place, something that is generally left for the big boys. Its easily accessible, free, and at present it has a modicum of customization. What they should be doing, especially since they are offering it for free, is asking for slightly more personal information and allowing users to "login" to their website something that at present is not possible. They have the beginnings of a voting system to do like what Jeff Jarvis spoke about in "What Would Google Do" , in terms of covering what the "reader" actually wants to read. You will notice that the most commented story as of this evening, when I took the screenshot, is this mornings leading headline from the Front page.

This is actually part of the reason I think that newspapers still exist, they function as a mechanism for bringing people together to discuss what is "important". Up to this point the discussion was had in small groups disconnected and except for via letters to the editor(which were only selectively republished) the newspaper as an entity was really only communicating directly with our wallets. Newspapers like the Oregonian who have followed the Reddit model of ranking stories based on votes, I think, are going to be the ones that survive because they will add value to their print media that other newspapers simply can't.

By keeping the conversation going on their website they are not only facilitating a public good they have a personal information goldmine at their fingertips, and most importantly the stories that get the most comments are the stories that will drive circulation which means a feedback loop can be created where by the stories that are reported on and investigated are connected to previous stories that were most commented on or controversial(while this model does have issues with link bait its vastly better than the current model).Where the Oregonian really shine is its online component, all of their writers and editors have twitter and facebook profiles that are easy to find, allowing for connectivity between the readers and the paper.

Sadly however, there is no way to make a profile on the Oregonian, which is where a lot of the value is, and given that they give away the whole paper via their App, seems like a huge loss of potential revenue. Two years ago I would understand this as newspapers didn't have the money to hire tech guys just to maintain their databases, but in an age of universal login and permissions it makes literally no sense to not piggy back off of other networks.

Quite possibly the biggest strength of newspapers right now, and conversely their biggest potential weakness, is their use and dependence of/on coupons and continued dependence on direct advertisement. Right on the front page is where this photo comes from, letting the reader know, hey you are saving money by buying this newspaper. This is a big reason why the Sunday edition is not only more expensive, but is the profitable paper for the week. More people read it which means advertisers pay more etc etc. What the newspaper industry needs to do is take this coupon model and digitize it(for tracking purposes), attach it to a paid for app, and ditch the weekday print editions all together.

This Nature made app should scare newspapers silly, right now nature made will pay them to host their coupons, but if Nature made can get people to download their app they can funnel them coupons and adverts without Newspapers. Newspapers already lost round 1 to craigslist and its cost them billions, they don't want to lose round 1 to the advertisers because it will cost them their whole model.

Advertisers are wasting money giving me this coupon and Newspapers are wasting money printing it, every knows that. The problem is lots of people do want these coupons and many of those people read
newspapers. Up to this point newspapers were the only viable option for companies to reach out to consumers at a cost effective price point, the definition of cost effective has dramatically changed in the digital age and print adverts just don't cut it anymore. Its also a sad state of affairs when the photos of the boxed food are more vibrant and sharp than the news photos.

Seriously?

I Included these two photos because there is often an argument that advertisers are leery of online adverts because of the fear of lascivity, but clearly if you can but these kinds of adverts in the Sunday Edition of a newspaper you can get away with quite a bit.

One of the biggest weakness of newspapers like the Oregonian is that they are not leveraging the potential information they could be receiving back from their readers that would be insanely valuable to advertisers and marketers. The could also be source of information in terms of who knows what for social science researchers who understand the need for paying for valuable hard to acquire information like the information that could be inferred from comment patterns on stories over time in a given region. Like all newspapers they cater to their local audience, local audience behavior and information is some of the most valuable data there is. They already send out coupons it would be a simple matter of connecting user subscription profiles with the coupons they use, something that is impossible in print world and ridiculously easy in the digital world.

Everyone likes the guy who gets
back up after he got knocked down.

The decline in circulation that the industry is facing is not because we don't value News anymore, its not just because of advertising, its not just because of Craigslist. The news industry, like all legacy industries, suffers from institutional inertia, administrative greed and incompetence, and a systemic lack of imagination. Society still needs institutions to vet rumors, investigate the stories that social media cannot afford to investigate, and most importantly society still needs journalism to act as a check on the power of business, government, and money. We have better tools than ever to do this and our institutions are failing to utilize them. It is up to us to make these changes and they start not in National papers like the Times, but in state news papers like the Oregonian. Society still needs the fourth estate, in an age of truthiness objective fact based journalism is more important than ever.I bought two copies of the paper to do this assignment and will likely buy more in the future because it was nice to read good regional coverage but I will still mostly read online because its faster, cheaper, and more targeted to me. The Oregonian like other Newspapers needs to continue to iterate on what its already done and innovate in new directions.

Asset Bubbles, Central Banks, and Libertarians

2012-02-04T12:25:00.001-08:00

I am asserting that A)Bubbles exist independent of central banks(government intervention), how they react to asset bubbles definitely affects how the macro economy is effected by the bubble and its eventual popping, seehttp://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2362.2006.00032.x/full for an excellent article detailing the back and forth on this very issue. B) Bubbles are an artifact of imperfection in the exchange of information(in the academic sense of the word, information travels in a variety of mediums Capital is a form of information, demand is a form of information, etc) between buyers and sellers. C) Governments and central banks can either mitigate or exacerbate the effects of bubbles on their host economies. D)Bubbles are a fundamental aspect of our economies because demand is never going to be perfectly inelastic(the exact opposite of bubble), sometimes people just want to have their furbies. E) Whenever a Bubble occurs in an interconnected international economy it will have repercussions in any attached country. F) Growth rates significantly above statistically normative growth = bubble, bubble growth can lead to collapse below minimum required growth rate to keep up with population if not managed correctly. Bubble economics, can in theory although not proven yet, be harnessed to provide additional tax income to state and local municipalities to help build out the foundation to support the new growth, this almost never happens because that excess capital that could be harnessed gets eaten up by graft, corruption, and middle men.

I think a good example to illustrate A) is the dot com bubble of the 90s, which to be fair, was a combination of over speculation by the private market coupled with economic distortions caused by government investment in Silicon valley.The Dot-com bubble is a perfect example of what happens when state, local, and federal government do not step in to manage the bubble, people ultimately lose their jobs and the overall economy weakens. High-Tech Start-Ups and Industry Dynamics in Silicon Valley delves into the nitty gritty of what made Silicon valley such a success, and ruminates on the possibilities, that we all lived from 2007 till today.
Crash and reboot: Silicon Valley hightech employment and wages confirms what I just asserted.

What these three articles show is that bubbles occur when we grow too fast because we cannot expand and "fortify" at high rates and therefore a collapse is energetically required, from a physics standpoint. The systems entropy is too high and unstable, it has to devolve to a lower energy state, which to us looks like a bubble popping. Sillicon valley got way too much money and was trying to grow in too many different directions. No one forced people to invest in Silicon Valley but there was irrational exuberance and imperfect information flow. If the last investors had known that the money they were investing was essentially "fat", in that SV had already received more than it could statistically reliably invest with a solid return, they would not have made those investments, which would not have hurt SV, and maybe there would have not been a dot com bubble. Alas, perfect information exchange is not possible, and therefore regardless of whether or not there is government there will always be bubbles. Governments can only mitigate or exacerbate, and just like a gun is only a tool, government sucks, and is dangerous, when you give it too much power and/or when the people running it are incompetent, corrupt, or self absorbed. The same thing was true with the housing bubble, yes the central banks perpetuated it, and Congress made it so easy to be corrupt that if you weren't doing it you would lose your job to someone who was because the profit rates were incredible.

If you go to http://www.measuringworth.com/growth/index.php, and you compare the economic years 80-81, 81-82-83-84-84-85 you see what I am talking about. Extremely anemic growth early on, ty Carter for sucking at foreign relations, followed by Bubble growth from investments from overseas, followed by the required pop, over the whole decade we only avged 3.4ish percent growth, from 1989-1990 we only had 1.88% growth, when just 4 years earlier we were at 7%. What happened in between, the Japanese Housing Bubble http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_asset_price_bubble, who was heavily investing in the US during the 80s, the Japanese, they have a bubble crisis investment dries up and US growth drops.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan%E2%80%93United_States_relations#1980s:_Rise_of_the_falcons
The US needs about 3.5% growth to keep up with population, when we get above that I posit that there is a bubble somewhere to be found, either in Housing, in Financial derivatives, in commodities, or in some other kind of assets.http://seekingalpha.com/article/203348-u-s-gdp-growth-rate-won-t-be-good-enough

There was a housing Bubble that popped just a few years back, if you look at us growth rates they on the face don't appear to match up, but when you add in all the building we did on credit you can see that the bubble was not in assets, or really in homes, but was in credit, and when that credit dried up our economy tanked and we shed jobs because we had not built out the foundation to support all of our credit financed growth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USDebt.png The main things that have changed from 1950 to now is that we tax business and the wealth significantly less, while spending more on defense contracts, bailouts to the GE's and GS's of the world, and to the increasing costs of health care for old people. The newest bubble is the College debt bubble, I wish I could get you good empirical sources for that but since the bubble hasn't popped yet the only sources avail are either behind pay walls or aren't reputable.

2012-02-01T21:05:00.000-08:00

Are you ready for the best smart phone commercial ever, watch the video and check out my commentary below.

This video was released right before the launch of the Iphone 4-S. The blogs were all a twitter about what features were going to be available, and Samsung had just released their SII unit and were looking to blunt the traditional boom accompianed by the release of a new Iphone unit. The add uses a variety of different persuasive techniques to convince its target audience, the traditional 18-35 year old market, people who can afford smart phones but haven't been indoctrinated into the Cult of Mac yet, or people who are fence sitters. It pokes fun at Apple by showing fans waiting in long lines, something that is normally a good thing, and flips it on its head by use of hidden fear, e.g what features will the new phone have and how will people know I have a new phone. The characters in the ad actually utter those words, which was received remarkably well. It was sending the message if you want to be cool, but not act like you are trying to be cool buy the Samsung Galaxy SII.

All of the actors in the ad are known unknowns, in that they represent some known character archetype. Whether its the pretentious barista, the hipster cult of mac guy, the savvy Asian, or the annoying blond. The ad is overflowing with humor and did an excellent job of displaying the strengths of the Samsung while simultaneously jumping on the bandwagon of Anti-IPhone ads that were on the internet. Another such "ad" is below, although this one is user generated. I have included this ad, because it goes to show how a company does not have to have a whole ad campaign on its own anymore, user generated ads are not only free but they can add to the viral nature of any ad campaign.

One of the subtler aspects of the commercial was that the only person who said the Samsung was a "great phone" was the savvy asian, and it is known that Americans think of Asians as more tech savvy than them. This as heavily relies on the association principle, up to this point people have associated coolness, creativity, and sophistication to those who use I-brand products. This ad attempts to turn that on its head by portraying Apples customers as pretentious followers who are just being lead by the nose to buy inferior products, whereas the savvy people already have a great device, they don't have to wait in line. This ad was not seen in its entirety on TV because of its length, but segments of it were shown, and it was heavily played on the Comedy Central website, if one was watching Colbert, Stewart, or South Park during the weeks before and after the Iphone release they were almost guaranteed to see this advert. Which is ideal seeing as most of the people who watch those shows online are guaranteed to be in the target demographic.

I included this ad because while it was not released by Samsung it was released at the same time and was part of the decentralized viral ad campaign centered around the release of the Iphone 4s. It too pokes fun at Apples customers and is vital to understanding why Samsung felt like it would be a good idea to release an ad like the one they did.

This final ad is included to show just how plugged in companies are becoming in terms of social media, below is a "you tube star" who is now doing commercials for Mobile Samsung Paris. The use of dubstep and finger tutting is designed to make customers feel like Samsung is a hip, modern brand, that understands what they want out of a tech company.

For the record, I am a total Samsung fan, although I do not own the SII.

YouTube - Natural Self - Feet Keep Moving

2011-05-17T10:55:00.000-07:00

YouTube - Natural Self - Feet Keep Moving

Awesome beats

A Little Augmented Reality Check From Metaio

2011-05-17T10:06:00.000-07:00

A Little Augmented Reality Check From Metaio

While tablets today are big bulky and expensive we all know how the cycle works in a few years they will be lighter, faster, and hopefully flexible. Augmented reality will hopefully folllow a trend similar to the trend in video games of increasing the number of pixels rendered ever year along with better physics engines.

Jon Stewart to Bill O’Reilly: Fox News is a ‘selective outrage machine’ | Raw Replay

2011-05-17T09:58:00.000-07:00

Jon Stewart to Bill O’Reilly: Fox News is a ‘selective outrage machine’ | Raw Replay

Wikileaks: GMO conspiracy reaches highest levels of US Government | FriendsEAT.com

2011-05-15T14:06:00.000-07:00

Wikileaks: GMO conspiracy reaches highest levels of US Government | FriendsEAT.com

While I am not against all GMOs Monsanto is easily one of the biggest enemies of humanity in the world. Their totalitarian control over crop from seed to harvest gives one an idea of how they will use their global leverage o ensure continued starvation and billions in profits for themselves. GMOs could be setting humanity free from the viscous cycle of agrarianism but instead it is being used to line the pockets of fat rich white men who didn't even do the science in the first place.

BBC News - Australian dies after 'planking' on balcony, police say

2011-05-15T08:49:00.000-07:00

BBC News - Australian dies after 'planking' on balcony, police say

Thinning the heard, thinning the heard. Planking to me seems rather asinine and if people die all the better, too many humans as it is we don't need to be bogged down by this kind of stupidity. A planker today is a car surfer the next.

BBC News - Israeli forces fire on protesters at border crossings

2011-05-15T08:28:00.000-07:00

BBC News - Israeli forces fire on protesters at border crossings

Its long past time that the Palestinians be given back the land stolen from them in 1948 by European Guilt and US geopolitical strategy. Though to be fair Syria is pushing this to distract from the uprisings in their own country seeking a more democratic government. The fires of tunisia burn bright and will hopefully continue to spread across not just the middle east but the world. We are only as free as the least free.

Experimental AIDS vaccine showing promise in monkeys | The Raw Story

2011-05-15T08:23:00.000-07:00

Experimental AIDS vaccine showing promise in monkeys | The Raw Story

Amazing news, "Dr. Louis Picker of the Oregon National Primate Research Center, whose study appear in the journal Nature, said he thinks it will be possible to have a vaccine ready to test in people within three years." While there have been many claims in the past about being able to hold HIV/AIDS at bay with a cocktail of drugs this is the first time an experimental vaccine has shown these kinds of results. With further tests and refinement over the next three years I expect that before 2020 we will have a fully functioning AIDS vaccine something that would truly change the world. AIDS has killed some 25 million people and infects some 33 million a viable vaccine is clearly more desirable than a cocktail of drugs one must take everyday. "Picker and colleagues use a relatively harmless virus called cytomegalovirus (CMV) as a transport system to take the experimental vaccine into the body." This is yet another example of using nature to fight against the worst pathogens, by using a virus already common amongst the human population this lowers the risk of secondary infections, the building up of tolerance o the drugs, and also hopefully will prevent HIV/AIDS from becoming resistant to it. "The breakthrough here is in using a viral-delivered vaccine that persists -- essentially using an engineered virus to thwart a pathogenic virus," said Robin Shattock, a professor of mucosal infection and immunity at Britain's Imperial College, who was not involved in the research."

Seriously?

2011-05-14T22:50:00.001-07:00

http://www.npr.org/2011/05/14/136278740/cash-strapped-cities-put-the-squeeze-on-nonprofits?ft=1&f=1002&sc=igg2

So in Boston they are asking non-profit Universities and hospitals to pay taxes, not churches though, not the ever wealthy Catholic church, and most certainly not the corporate tax dodgers that keep our elected officials in office. The best government money can by comes to mind, the fact that we are going after schools and hospitals for cash absolutely blows me away, especially as blow hards like Boehner and phaux liberals like Obama argue back and forth over social-issues like abortion, gay marriage, and basketball brackets.

THE END OF THE WORLD

2011-05-14T17:44:00.000-07:00

LOL Gotta love the religious crazy fucks, everyone get ready to make fun of Family radio.com and anyone who believes this bullshit!

Left Facebook for good

2011-05-14T16:14:00.000-07:00

I hope that this will not be a place where I talk to myself like 98% of all blogs.

The myth of Meritocracy

2011-05-14T16:11:00.000-07:00

Great article here, http://www.ncsociology.org/sociationtoday/v21/merit.htm, Well worth the read.

A possibility on God.

2010-03-23T08:36:00.001-07:00

No God before the big bang - Is it not possible that what we could and would perceive as a God was not created before the beginning of the universe but was merely the first thing created. This in no way solves the anthropogenic problem or the prime mover problem but it does allow for a god like figure without an endless regressive loop, and at least for religious folks, of which you know I am not, it allows for a God like figure without having to throw out modern physics.

The rise of Isolationism.

2009-12-18T19:34:00.001-08:00

From the 1930's to the entrance of the United States in to WW2 there was a massive surge in isolationism and economic protectionism in the United States. Will such another wave spread over this country only to be broke by yet another major global conflict?

Done with finals

2009-12-12T20:33:00.001-08:00

Done with my finals.... gotta love talking to yourself. But this is a cathartic sort of experience.

Sen John Barrasso

2009-12-03T10:14:00.000-08:00

Has no connection to reality, and is continuing the same Republican talking points about insurance across state lines, co-ops, torte reform, and no evil bureaucrats(what are insurance bureaucrats i wonder). What the senator seems to be unable or unwilling to accept is that torte reform is at best an 8% reduction in costs, co-ops have been shown to be completely ineffectual in competing against multi-state/national insurance companies that are operating under monopoly like conditions and colluding with each other to fix prices, and selling insurance across state lines is a canard, as evidenced by current lending laws and how almost every credit card issuer is out of Delaware, who coincidentally has the laxest lending laws. Failsauce Senator Failsauce.