Archive for November, 2008

Happy (Belated) Thanksgiving

Published on November 30, 2008 in Chicago, Illinois, Life and Weather. 2 Comments

Hello!

Another blogging holiday. I’ve missed this outlet for the past few days, but have enjoyed myself relaxing and eating plenty.

Monica and I went to her folk’s place for the holidays and had a great weekend. I have to give a shout out to them and the delicious Thanksgiving Day meal.

I made a big mistake though when we left because I forgot my laptop! That required me to take a very early trip this morning to the Northern border of Illinois. I met Monica’s dad and got my laptop back. The bad news was the transportation-related nightmare for one of the busiest days of travel – snow. Chicago was expecting approximately 4 to 5 inches of snow with northern Wisconsin getting about an inch. This was a reversal from a few days ago where the opposite was supposed to happen. In the end, I think the original guess was correct because Wisconsin got snow and Chicago got a bunch of sleet and wind.

Today, I had an awful grocery shopping trip. I’ll exclude the name of the store though. I enjoy the experience of grocery shopping (besides paying). The store I was at is in the middle of remodeling, so the atmosphere was that of a store in war-torn Eastern Europe, rather than Chicago. I made it out less $150, but with enough supplies for a while.

Identity 2.0 Keynote

Published on November 25, 2008 in Privacy and Technology. 1 Comment

Watch this…I learned about this project from a great lecture I saw by Larry Lessig. It is an extremely interesting presentation. Seriously, watch his presentation style it is really cool and similar to that of Prof. Lessig.

How to Reinvent the Republican Party

Published on November 24, 2008 in Politics. 0 Comments

Tolerance, competence and the third thing is empathy. One of the McCain campaign’s lowest points was when a top economic adviser criticised Americans for grumbling about the economy. Astonishing. The Republicans need to show that the interests of ordinary Americans are uppermost in their minds, something they have often failed to do. Their argument with Democrats should be about how best to serve those interests: their endless willingness to cede ground on who cares more is very perplexing.

FT.com / Columnists / Clive Crook – How to reinvent Republican party.

An interesting editorial in the Financial Times.  I’m not sure you have to read it all, but just consider the three points that the editorialist believes the Republican Party should engage in in 2010 and 2012.

A Question on Vision and Energy Policy

Published on November 24, 2008 in Economics and School. 0 Comments

Vision is important in politics. This year’s election makes that perfectly clear. I believe in a lot of ways Obama’s election hinged on his ability to communicate his vision and to convince the American public that it is the right vision.

Another important issue is Energy policy. Even though the importance of this issue seems to be directly correlated to gas prices. The coverage of this issue is also correlated to Al Gore’s popularity, although this relationship is less strong.

In statistical terms:

corr(energy coverage, gas prices) > corr(energy coverage, Al Gore popularity) > 0

Anyway, this morning I was walking outside in the cold and started combining these two concepts – Vision and Energy.

I came up with a very fundamental and simple question: Do you envision America as a nation run on solar panels and windmills?

My answer to this question is ‘No’. We are the largest economy in the world. Here are some GDP figures from the World Bank:

1 United States 13,811,200
2 Japan 4,376,705
3 Germany 3,297,233
4 China 3,280,053
5 United Kingdom 2,727,806
*In millions of dollars

Nearly 14 trillion dollars. When we talk about economic growth each year, we are talking about a $14 trillion behemoth growing at 3-5%. (Granted we may be shrinking a bit now). That is insane! That’s about $700 billion dollars each year.

I just can’t picture this nation running on solar and wind power. At least not for a long time. We’re going to need coal. Of course, it would be optimal to find a cleaner way to burn it, but we need the energy it produces. In my opinion, we should invest in nuclear power for its availability, reliability, and cleanliness.

I’m curious how others envision the American energy landscape in the next 10 years? Can we achieve, as Al Gore believes, a perfectly carbon-neutral energy industry without nuclear power?

Good Evening!

Published on November 23, 2008 in Life and School. 3 Comments

Working on law school apps right now. It is a difficult process. I’m not sure what more to say, but I’m learning a lot of valuable lessons.

The first and most important is even if you think you’ve started early enough…you haven’t.

Second, foster any and all relationships that you have with people in your environment. This is the notorious idea of ‘networking’…The problem is that you need to do it in school as well during job-related events. If you have any plans to apply to a professional or graduate school, you need recommendations. To get a good recommendation, you need a strong relationships with someone from your academic career.

Third, and last piece of advice for this hope, contain your ego. The fear of failure can be overwhelming.

US Global Dominance ‘Set to Wane’

Published on November 21, 2008 in Debate and News. 0 Comments

Global warming, along with rising populations and economic growth will put additional strains on natural resources, it warns, fuelling conflict around the globe as countries compete for them.

BBC NEWS | Americas | US global dominance ’set to wane’.

Seriously, read this article and tell me it was not made to be used in debate.  I want to talk more in depth about it later, but just read it…seriously.

I’m Not Your Buddy

Published on November 20, 2008 in Life and Uncategorized. 4 Comments

I consider myself a pretty friendly guy, but I’m the cash register-dude at Panera is not my buddy. Yes, for some reason this bothers me.

Honestly, I’m not even sure why I’m blogging about it, but it seemed worth mentioning. What does everyone else thing? Do you call random people buddy? I guess the thing is that I have people in my life that I would consider my ‘buddies’, he’s just not one of them. Maybe he will be some day, but he’s not right now.

Wow. This post sounds kind of arrogant, but a lot of times when people…say something like “hey buddy” or “hey friend” they mean it to be sarcastic and degrading or to make you uncomfortable. In the case of Panera-dude…mission accomplished.

For the record – Panera’s iced chai tea lattes are gross…don’t buy them. But the turkey artichoke panini is delicious.

Update: Fed Rate Cut

Published on November 19, 2008 in Economics. 0 Comments

Federal Reserve officials have pared their outlook for economic growth through 2009 to minimal levels and are prepared to cut interest rates further, while concern has risen that a deflationary spiral may take hold.

WRAPUP 1-Fed signals ready to cut rates amid glum outlook | Markets | Markets News | Reuters.

In an update to the previous post about falling prices, this article indicates that the Fed will likely lower interst rates.  This should spur investment in the economy at a time when the word ‘recession’ is looming over head.  As I speculated in my earlier post, the Fed is worried about continually falling prices which would be a bad sign for the economy.

Let’s make this clear quick, relatively cheap prices are good (ie buying something on sale), absolute continual price decline is not good.

New Xbox Experience

Published on November 19, 2008 in Entertainment. 3 Comments

In 1954, the introduction of color TV heralded the dawn of a new era in entertainment. On November 19, more than 50 years after that dramatic shift, a new era in home entertainment begins with the New Xbox Experience, as millions of Xbox 360 consoles transform in an instant through the power of software.

Xbox.com | New Xbox Experience.

Record Price Drops

Published on November 19, 2008 in Business and Economics. 5 Comments

I just went to Google News and saw this interesting article:

The cost of living in the U.S. fell by the most on record as fuel costs plummeted and retailers used discounts for cars and clothing to entice consumers hobbled by job losses and sinking home values.

This is an interesting result of the current economic slow down. It fundamentally goes against the goals of the Fed targeting a minimal inflation rate. In the short run it is great for consumers, since wages are slow to adjust, it will increase their purchasing power. If the price drops are expected to turn into a prolonged inflation, then wages will drop over time. We all know that this is never perceived well by actors in the economy. So let’s not celebrate sales at our favorite stores too quickly.

Furthermore, prolonged deflation can have negative effects on the economy as Japan experienced in the 1990’s. It can cripple the power of the central bank, especially if expectations cause wages to drop further in a vicious cycle.

Like everyone else, I’m happy that gas prices are down, but I think this summer’s oil prices were inflated. In our current economic times, I feel certain that any news with the word “record” (besides Olympic ones) is bad news. This even includes falling prices, somewhat ironically.

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