Unemployment Statistics

If you want to see the big picture on unemployment, check the U6 data here that's the one that more clearly describes total unemployment.

Batman and Robin quotes

Robin: "I guess you can never trust a woman."
Batman: "You've made a hasty generalization, Robin. It's a bad habit to get into."

Robin: "That's an impossible shot, Batman."
Batman: "That's a negative attitude, Robin."

Alfred Hitchcock's style

"My camera is absolute."

"I tell the story through that lens, so I need you to move when my camera moves, stop when my camera stops. I'm confident you'll be able to find your motivation to justify the motion. I'll be happy to work with you, but I will not change the timing of my camera."

"Either they wear the clothes and do the part the way I want or they're not going to be in it."

from Spellbound by Beauty by Donald Spoto

Video - The Boss was good but Prince was the best!

Many are saying the Springsteen's halftime show during Superbowl 43 was the best ever . . . . not. Check out Prince during the 2007 halftime in the rain and note that he didn't go overtime!

Video - The best catch ever

The touchdown catch to clinch Superbowl 43 was the best ever.

The passing of Lance McCollum

One of the finest luthiers I know has passed away very unexpectedly. Lance McCollum built some of the most amazing guitars. I own a Grand Auditorium that Lance built for himself many years ago and sold to me prior to the Healdsburg Guitar Festival in 2005. Click here to see his website.

Video - Dolphin Stampede

This is a remarkable video clip someone sent to me, looks like it might have taken place off the tip of Baja, California.

Why do you cry when you cut onions?

And more importantly, how can you prevent it from happening . . . if you can.

Onions contain a lot of sulfur. When you cut them, the cells burst and release enzymes. These enzymes turn sulfur into a gas. The gas into your eyes and forms sulfuric acid. One way to prevent the tears is to rub a cut lemon on the knife. Watch the Mythbusters prove it here on YouTube

Sports Trivia Question

Who was one of the most famous athlete's of all time to play a role in a movie and not play himself?






Wilt Chamberlain in Conan the Barbarian

learned this from the movie "Shotgun Solutions"

The insignificance of wine ratings

In 1978, a lawyer turned self-proclaimed wine critic, Rober M. Parker Jr. decided that, in addition to his reviews, he would rate wines numerically on a 100 point scale. Over the years most other wine publicaitons followed suit. From the theoretical view point, there are many reasons to quesiton the significance of wine ratings. For one thing, taste perception depends on a complex interaction between taste and ofactory stimululation. Strictly speakig, the sense of taste comes from 5 types of receptor cells on the tongue: salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami. But if that were all there was to taste perception, one could mimic everything, fortunately there is more to gluttony than that and that is where the sense of smell comes in. The perceived taste of wine arises from the effects of a stew of between 600 and 800 volatile organice compounds on both the tongue and the nose. That's a problem, given that studies have shown that even flavor trained professionals can rarely reliably identify more than three of four components in a mixture.

Let's just say that the quality of a wine's taste is pretty complex. Skeptical of the numbering system yet? OK, scientists have designed ways to measure wine experts taste descrimination directly using a wine triangle (each tastor is given 3 wines, two of which are idnentical). The mission is to choose the odd sample. In many studies over the years, experts could only do it only 2/3 of the time. "On many levels the ratings system is nonsensical," says the editor of Wine and Spirits Magazine. But why does the system endure? Because people are attracted to and have faith more in numbers than other systems of rating.

Ockham's Razor

There is a time-honored principle called Ockham's Razor, which states that the explanation for any phenomenon should focus only on the essential and relevant elements, avoiding as many unnecessary “second-order” factors as possible. Albert Einstein put it this way: “A theory should be a simple as possible, but no simpler.” From the standpoint of economic stimulus, Ockham's Razor suggests that we will fail as a nation to address the current economic crisis if we fail to address the source of that crisis. Again, this means focusing first on bank capital and mortgage foreclosures.

In short, the essential problem is not “insufficient aggregate demand” but rather risk-aversion and anticipatory saving triggered by fear of financial instability. Ockham's razor cuts straight to bank capital and foreclosure risk. We can address a much wider range of interests in the cause of economic stimulus, but if we fail to address the central cause of the present economic crisis, the attempt to increase “aggregate demand” will predictably fail.

Liz atop Arthur's Seat

Arthur's Seat is the main peak of the group of hills which form most of Holyrood Park, a remarkably wild piece of highland landscape in the center of the city of Edinburgh, about a mile to the east of Edinburgh Castle. Here's a photo of my niece atop the peak. Click here to learn more.

Playing for Change - a new way to create and collaborate

The ability to collaborate on music today is amazing. Musicians around the world don't need to be in the same place to make music together. Click here to watch the video "Playing For Change"

Human Perception

Perception requires imagination because the data people encounter in their lives are never complete and always equivocal. Human perception, according to Michael Faraday (inventor of the electronic motor and one of the greatest of experimental scientists) is not a direct consequence of reality but rather an act of imagination.

Video - Extras Favorite clip

Ricky Gervais created Extras and this is my favorite clip

Clan Kincaid

Here's a little family history click here

Agnotology

Agnotology: Culturally constructed ignorance, purposefully created by special interest groups working hard to create confusion and suppress the truth. What's going on? Normally, we expect society to progress, amassing deeper scientific understanding and basic facts every year. Knowledge only increases, right?

Robert Proctor doesn't think so. A historian of science at Stanford, Proctor points out that when it comes to many contentious subjects, our usual relationship to information is reversed: Ignorance increases. He has developed a word inspired by this trend: agnotology. Derived from the Greek root agnosis, it is "the study of culturally constructed ignorance." We need to fashion information tools that are designed to combat agnotological rot. Wikipedia is one of the solutions: It encourages users to build real knowledge through consensus, and the result manages to (mostly) satisfy even people who hate each other's guts. Because the most important thing these days might just be knowing what we know.

Read the full story on how this word came into being and it's impact on all of us click here

Mike Doyles says this too

Mike Doyles says

Geithner, the incoming Treasury Secretary ooooops

Treasury Secretary Geithner may be in some trouble, as he failed to pay taxes on his income from his stint at the IMF. This is not an "Oops, I forgot!" The IMF does not withhold income taxes from its employees. However, he was given a memo about the taxes he owed. And he did pay them for two years when he was audited and caught. He clearly knew the nature of the taxes due the two prior years, yet did not come clean on those years. Dumb move for someone on a fast-track career and who clearly has an impressive intellect. He has got to be kicking himself.