I don’t usually watch the show Hardball With Chris Matthews, but maybe I need to start doing so. He decided to have someone on his show named Kevin James who has his own conservative radio show in Los Angeles.
Mr. James apparently doesn’t bother researching his references to historical figures and their accomplishments as the video below will show.
Chris Matthews Tears Up Kevin James on Hardball
Recently watched a DVD with someone who now owns a Nintendo Wii game console. The DVD was about something called the Wii Fit. I was intrigued about it since the picture had shown people exercising. The Wii Fit is designed to make exercising into a game of sorts. You have muscle workouts, aerobics, balance games, and even yoga. You actually have to earn points to unlock other activities. Starts with a weigh in and a bunch of questions about yourself. It comes with the Wii Balance Board show below.
Here is some more information and reviews about it:
I’m going to be very interested in trying it out. If it makes exercising more fun then I’m all about it. Should be released here on May 19, 2008 and supposedly retails for around $90.
Here is a nice video about it:
Wii Fit — full trailer from E307
With gas prices rising by the day, I think the $4/gallon day is becoming a reality. Motorists are not happy at all. So people start wondering what to do about it. After all, aren’t all these oil companies making record profits off this? If that’s true, then why not hit them right where it hurts. I found these two articles explaining why some of the tactics we think would work would not.
Oil Strikes and Gasoline Buyouts
A cap on the price of gasoline is a bad idea…
The problem is more complex than we’d like to think it is. It also doesn’t help that we don’t have enough oil refineries making gasoline. As this article points out, it doesn’t help when the price of crude oil keeps going up and consumer demand is plummeting.
At Valero, the nation’s largest independent refiner, first-quarter
profit melted by 76 percent. Its refining capacity allows it to process
heavier grades of crude oil that typically trade at a discount. Still,
its profit dropped to $261 million in the first quarter compared with
$1.1 billion last year.
Hard to justify building more refineries when it could be a money losing operation.
I think most everybody not in vacuum these days is aware of all the hype surrounding Apple’s iPhone. It’s supposed to be the best thing since sliced bread as far as cell phones go. So much so that lots of people are taking their hard earned cash and trying to buy one. Noticed I said “trying” to buy one. As noted in this article, if you want to buy an iPhone you will need a credit card to do so. They refuse to accept cash as payment for these. Apple claims it’s to discourage people from buying them in bulk so they can resell them. See, the catch with iPhone is that you have to use it on AT&T’s cellular network. You can’t take it to any other provider and get it to work. Supposedly there is a way to unlock the phone so it could be used with other carriers and that’s why people are reselling them. A quote from this article outlines how much people wish to unlock those phones.
One million iPhones, or 27% of those sold last year,
have been adapted to work on other networks, said Bernstein Research
analyst Toni Sacconaghi.
Other carriers would love to offer this phone to their customers. Apple was counting on the revenue generated from allowing AT&T exclusive right to sell service on the phone.
Mr Sacconaghi said the high number of unlocked iPhones
in the US would be a concern for Apple, as it receives a percentage of
AT&T’s contract fees from iPhone users.He estimates that if Apple sells 10 million iPhones in
the US by the end of 2008, but 30% of them have been unlocked to work
with other phone networks, Apple will lose $500m (£251m) in revenues.
I can see the steam coming from Steve Jobs’s head all the way from here.
In my view, what Apple should have done is work out deals with all the carriers instead of just one. Problem is that the iPhone was created in partnership with AT&T before AT&T took over Cingular. They had a hand in it right from the beginning so it was reasonable to expect that AT&T would want to reap as much as possible from it. I still think that even with AT&T in the mix, both companies could have worked out something with other carriers that could have benefited both. In fact, I think they could have benefited even more so then they do now. It’s just like Apple to try and make things exclusive only to them. You can only use their phone with one carrier and it must be paid for with a credit card. A great opportunity squandered but that’s just my opinion.
Shown Above: A brewmaster showing a bucket full of hops in pellet form used in brewing beer.
Now I know we have a real food supply crisis in the world when beer starts being affected. Apparently it is becoming increasing difficult for beer breweries to acquire hops which is a critical ingredient in most of the beer we drink. Some quotes from this article in Wired are quite revealing:
Gortemiller isn’t acting on a spurt of creativity. He’s coping with a
worldwide shortage of hops — the spice of beer. The dry cones of a
particular flowering vine, hops are what give your favorite brew its
flavor and aroma. Prices of the commodity are skyrocketing as hop
supplies have plummeted, forcing smaller brewmasters around the United
States to begin quietly tweaking their recipes, in ways that are easily
discerned by serious imbibers.
This is another quote that is very eye opening:
“When hops were $2 a pound, compared to $20 or $30 a pound now, it
didn’t matter. We’d throw them into the boil at various times,”
Gortemiller says. “That was an inaccurate way of doing things. We’re
modifying recipes and using about 20 percent less hops.”
It’s not just hops either - it’s even affecting barley supplies:
He’s paying more for barley, though — the price has jumped because of
a drought in Australia, flooding in Europe and a trend that has farmers
worldwide switching to corn to produce biofuels.
Some breweries put into place long term contracts to buy hops and barley well into the future. They pretty much get first pick so they won’t be affected as much. There are special hop varieties that may not even be available in the years to come. So what could all this mean? Some will need to change the formula upon which their beer is made. You could start seeing a bigger push towards varieties that use much less hops. There are some varieties out there already but they usually take a very small chunk of the overall beer market. More farmers are turning away from growing less profitable crops like hops and more profitable crops like corn which is now being used for biofuels. The beer will be more expensive and could taste quite different than what we are used to. Anyone for a cold one?
Every so often, you run into one of those opinion articles that really is spot on. If you’ve ever done any reading on technology trends, then you are no stranger to a man named John Dvorak. He’s been writing articles about technology trends since the 1980’s so he knows a thing or two about the economy and it’s affects on that sector. He writes a regular column called John Dvorak’s Second Opinion for a site called MarketWatch. I’ve always liked his columns since they provide some interesting insights into the inner workings of the tech sector. His latest column talks about the public’s eroding trust in financial institutions. To quote one of the paragraphs:
It turns out that we are looking at nothing more than pigs at the feed
trough gorging on easy money while pretending to be the public’s friend
and protector. This situation is seriously damaging the economy and
threatening the future of the economic system.
That probably sums it up as good as any. It’s all having a ripple effect. High gas prices, runaway food prices, high rates of mortgage foreclosures, failing businesses…need I go on? What makes this article stand out for me is that it doesn’t try to micro analyze individual factors. Instead it takes on the broad picture and identifies the root cause of the problem. Don’t see that much anymore in articles like these.
Unfortunately, he does make another point worth noting:
The whole scene is as bleak as it could be, but because of a declining
public interest and perhaps a general stupefaction of the public,
nothing is done about it. It’s a population of sheep being fleeced over
and over with hardly a complaint.
Many people simply don’t care and won’t do anything about it. Unless people stand up, speak up, and take action it will keep happening. If someone is fleecing you with fees, then stop using the service. If everyone did that simple action, it would go a long way to sending a message.
I urge you to check out his current column. It won’t cost you anything but time.
Recently discovered this album while listening to another album on Rhapsody called Minimum Maximum by a group called Kraftwerk. For those who may not know, anything done with electronic music today can be traced back to the work of Kraftwerk in the 1970’s. Apparently in 1983 they created a piece for the Tour De France with the same title as the event. There was supposed to be a full length album about it as well but it was shelved until 2003 when they finally released the Tour De France Soundtracks album.
What really grabbed me about this album is how it made me feel like I was travelling through the tour. I’ve dabbled with electronic music in the past but nothing I ever came up with came even close to what these guys have done. This is a great album for listening to while working on your PC with a good pair of headphones.
If it’s something that sounds like it might be worth purchasing, here would be a good place to start.
There is also a video made to one of the songs shown below.
I knew it had to happen eventually. A certain special someone I know is really into the music of the Canadian-born artist Bryan Adams. Well as fate would have it, he was due to appear at the Town Ballroom here in downtown Buffalo, NY on Wednesday, May 7, 2008 at 8 P.M. It was mentioned that since this was a solo acoustic performance that the tickets would get snapped up quickly. Saturday morning I sprang into action and went right to the Tickets.com web site and set up camp on BA’s specific page for tickets. Week later, two tickets for the show arrive.
For the record, I’m not someone who could say they are a fan of Bryan’s music. As I was on my way to the show, I reflected on how much this guy’s music has been like a soundtrack to my life. I grew up in the 80’s and came to like good arena rock anthems and this guy had them in spades. Even today, you can hardly play your radio without hearing his songs. Even more impressive is how well I know his songs even though I don’t consider myself an active fan (I don’t even own any of his CD’s nor do I have any of his songs in my online library on Rhapsody). His songs do have a way of sticking in your head long after being heard and that’s a good thing. I knew this was going to be an interesting performance. Just BA, acoustic guitar, with some harmonica for good measure, and no opening act to speak of. The show was standing room only with not a chair or table in sight. Near as I could tell, it was packed to capacity. Also helped that tickets were $25/piece which to me is a total bargain in a an era where dropping $80 to $200 per ticket is common.
For someone like me who is not a fan, this guy rocked his heart out last night. He played great, sang great, and owned the crowd from the moment he came out. He didn’t need a band at all - he WAS the band! This was to be a promo tour for his upcoming album entitled “11″ so he started with a few tunes from that. Along the way he included all sorts of his hits right from his start in the early 80’s. He performed with the authority of a veteran musician and the energy of an 18 year old. Guitar playing was great, his singing was spot on, and he was very nice to the audience. He also varied from his set list by including an audience request. I found myself on many occasions starting to sing along with crowd. Sometimes it seemed like the crowd tried to take over singing of the song which Bryan really seemed to enjoy.
I’ve read a number of reviews on his music and he is no critic’s favorite that’s for sure. I think a lot of music critics are put off by the simplicity of his music. His messages are very straight forward as is his music. He started as more of a rocker who morphed into performing lots of epic ballads heard on movies. That’s usually not going to get you a lot of critical acclaim as an artist, but in Bryan’s case I don’t think he needs it. The audience sure didn’t seem to care last night. They sang, danced, even held up a few lighters. Bryan entertained, did it with guts and style, and as far as I’m concerned the audience got way more than their money’s worth out of that show. I’d gladly go and see him again if he keeps performing like the way he did last night. Only thing you can ask is that he keeps coming up with new material for the future.
We have progress on the bathroom. Starting to look a little more inhabitable this time around.
Up, up, and up some more! Yes, New York State is raising it’s Thruway tolls yet again. To add insult to more insult, those who use EZPass automated toll collection (like me) are getting a very sharp increase. I will give our Thruway system here this: they do keep it in great shape. Only problem is if they were doing a great job with the money they had, why increase it now? Is there some new stretch of interstate highway we are funding and we don’t know it yet? The State Comptroller for NY has audited the Thruway Authority and found all sorts of financial waste and other assorted oddities. He flatly stated that an increase could not be justified until they examine more closely their own spending. As it was, we had to just about riot just so they would remove the tolls from a spur route around the city. What I find interesting is all the miles of interstate highway in NY state that do not have any tolls at all. It certainly has to make you wonder. Rising gas prices and rising tolls…what a combination!