August 2007 Archives

Oh, good grief.

School Bans Tag After Parents Complain

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- A Colorado Springs elementary school is banning the game of tag on its playground -- after some children complained that they'd been chased or harassed against their will.

Assistant Principal Cindy Fesgen of the Discovery Canyon Campus school said running games will be allowed, as long as students don't chase each other.

Read the whole story (TheDenverChannel.com)

I predict the next thing to go will be the formation of single-file lines, as that might make students near the back of the line feel demeaned by the students ahead of them. Or maybe we should get rid of the jungle gyms; after all, the fat/weak kids who can't pull themselves up might feel socially inadequate in front of their peers. And we can't have that, now, can we?

I've always felt my Treo was a splendid phone/handheld, but often thought a bigger screen might be nice. I recently bought a used Palm TX to use as a PMP and, much like the whole "Your peanut butter is in my chocolate" moment, I wondered how the Treo might look with a wide HVGA screen.

I was having a hard time imagining exactly how big such a beast might be, so I 'shopped up a quick-and-dirty visualization:

Well, I think it's clear that that just won't work. You'd need a leg-holster, nay, a scabbard, just to carry it around. Oh, well...it was a fun five minutes.

Fortune / CNN Money.com have an interesting piece: Are Americans too lazy? U.S. workers can't compete globally unless they work harder, writes Fortune's Geoff Colvin.

The surprising report of our relative sloth arrives in new research from the UN's International Labor Organization, which looks at working hours around the world. When it comes to what we might call hard work, meaning the proportion of workers who put in more than 48 hours a week, America is near the bottom of the heap. About 18% of our employed people work that much.

We have increased our leisure time enormously over the past 40 years -- so much so that it "corresponds roughly to an additional five to ten weeks of vacation a year," says a study by Mark Aguiar of the Boston Fed and Erik Hurst of the University of Chicago business school, who conducted the study.

People with jobs are working fewer hours. Compounding the effect, fewer of us work at all, with growing numbers of people spending more time in retirement.

Of course, there's more to work than what we do on the job; there's also the work we do at home, and that too has fallen drastically. (It has fallen on average; men are actually doing a bit more work at home than they used to, but women are doing much less.)

Put it all together, and the researchers figure we're getting about 117 hours of leisure per week (including sleep), vs. 110 hours in 1965. That's more than 360 additional idle hours per year. We are a couch-potato nation.

Read the entire story (CNN.com)

If these data are accurate and the analysis is sound (e.g., it doesn't conflate the growing retired population with those of a working age who simply choose not to work), then it speaks directly to those who decry the growing wealth gap in this country (the populations at the top and bottom of the income scale are growing while the middle shrinks). I'm all for social equity, inalienable rights, and equal opportunity for everyone to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but I'm also of the opinion that rewards tend to be the fruits of one's effort, not simply one's existence.

The HP LP3065 30" LCD Monitor

2560 x 1600 resolution
8ms response
400 square inches of workspace bliss

A little less than a year ago, Microsoft launched its iPod competitor, the Zune, for $250.

Within 7 months, the price had fallen under $200. Now, 4 months later, the Zune is $150 and being sold through Woot.com, the online equivalent of the Dollar Store.

I think it's safe to say the Zune wasn't exactly a home run.

Of course, an alternate explanation is that Zune version 2 is on its way and Microsoft is just clearing out the last of its old inventory through a lower-visibility channel. We shall see...

Update: Turns out that Woot had 6300 units and sold all of them over a 21-hour period. Seems demand for Zunes might be fairly elastic.

Instead, why not read a book? Chances are that you're not reading as much as you used to...or should.

A terrific summary of the main candidates' positions on over two dozen different issues are clearly presented on this table (flickr.com), which is a graphic version of this table (2decide.com).

Granted, the table doesn't get into specifics or degree of intensity of support, but it's definitely a helpful start when the field is so heavily populated.

And I'm shocked...shocked, I tell you, to realize that of all the candidates, Dennis Kucinich, the boy from my own state of Ohio, most closely matches my own positions (as far as I can tell...he and I seem to disagree only on capital punishment).

As a general rule, guns and children should never be within a mile of each other, for it's inevitable what will happen if they are.

3-Year-Old Shoots 6-Year-Old

Police: Man Stored Gun Behind Stove

MILWAUKEE -- A 6-year-old boy is recovering after being shot Tuesday night.

Milwaukee police said a 3-year-old girl found a gun inside a home near Teutonia Avenue and Chambers Street and pulled the trigger. Investigators said the bullet hit the 6-year-old in the stomach.

A 32-year-old man who lives in the house told police he stores a loaded gun behind the stove and that the girl got a hold of it somehow and walked into a room where two 6-year-old boys were playing.

Read the entire story (WISN.com)

The fact that our gun control laws are ineffective doesn't mean we shouldn't have gun control laws, it just means we need better (and more consistently enforced) gun control laws.

I just read a fascinating article in the New York Times, In Silicon Valley, Millionaires Who Don't Feel Rich and it reminded me how fortunate I am to live in Cincinnati. Sure, we don't have beaches here, but $300K will buy you a really nice house in most parts of town and, unless you live in the outmost 'burbs, your commute is likely under 30 minutes.

What's particularly saddening is that most of these single-digit millionaires who work 70 hours a week just to maintain their social status could have a much better quality-of-life somewhere else. Shorter commutes, housing prices a third of what they're used to paying, and more time for family and friends is all available if they just leave Silicon Valley.

I guess it's kind of like getting kids hooked on drugs to clean up. One of the first steps is to remove them from the bad influences (i.e., other kids who do drugs). However, in the case with these tech managers, it may be that they need to be removed from the other Menlo Park digerati before they realize that social pressure is really destroying their quality of life.

Discovery.com has a cool story about how PDAs are being used in African wildlife conservation efforts.

Aug. 1, 2007 - In Africa, one might expect to see a lion with a fresh kill, a baboon with a toothy grin, or an elephant with its herd. But a Bushman with a PalmPilot? It's possible.

Expert hunters and gatherers such as the Bushmen, the indigenous people of the Kalahari Desert, are being equipped with smart phones with special software for tracking plants and animals. Called CyberTracker, the free program combines a database of icons of animals and plants with GPS software to allow people who cannot read or write to record complex information.

Conservationists use the information to create maps and charts of animal movements and feeding habits, which can help improve environmental research and park management.

Read the whole story (Discovery.com)