Random Thoughts From This Week (March 6 - 12)

News

• Toyota - Impending law suite + Mysterious acceleration problem = Daily 911 call for mysterious acceleration problem in Toyota Prius. I think some of these calls are going to turn out to be "Balloon Boy" episodes...
• DC Public Schools - I listen to NPR in the morning, and recently I've been hearing advertisements for the DC public schools teacher association. The radio advertisements say something similar to, "Doing great things through teaching for students," or some such. Now, I know there are exceptions, but I think it's pretty well know that the DC public schools are bad. So why would the DC public schools teacher association be advertising how great they are on NPR? I wonder if it has anything to do with President Obama's support of teacher firings in Central Falls, RI, or the soon to be released list of the nations 5,000 lowest-performing schools?

Wednesday Art: Crystals

Random Thoughts From This Week (Feb 27 - March 5)

World Events
What's in a name? - I find it interesting that the news outlets are referring to military casualties in Afghanistan as "NATO" casualties - even if it's an American. Usually the headlines will read something like, "Two NATO Troops Killed...", then the body of the article will breakdown the nationality of the troops.

Finance
GM's Missed Opportunity - A couple weeks back I commented on Toyota's problems, and how how they were a golden opportunity for Ford and GM. Well, it looks like Ford took advantage of that opportunity and GM completely missed it. Ford's sales increased thirty-two percent for the month of February, while GM's only increased seven percent.

Technology
Washington Post iPhone App - Finally! The Washington Post (WP) has an iPhone application. It's very similar to the applications offered by the New York Times (NYT) and Wall Street Journal (WSJ). The big difference is the WP application costs $1.99 annually, whereas the NYT and WSJ applications are free, but to get some content on WJS you have to have a subscription for online content. As I wrote earlier, the NYT will be introducing a model similar to WSJ in 2011. I'll gladly pay $1.99 annually for WP content. We'll see what my price point is as NYT evolves to a pay model.

Sports
Tiger Woods - I'm waiting for the steroid issue to pop back up. If you remember, right about the time Woods' sex scandal broke, there was reporting about a Canadian doctor, Anthony Galea, who was arrested for selling an illegal drug to athletes that helped them "heal" faster, and during the investigation Canadian police found files linking the doctor to Woods. It appeared that the good doctor saw Woods around the time he had knee surgery. That story seemed to die pretty fast. I remember watching Woods a year, or so, back on TV playing a golf tournament and thinking to myself, "For a golfer, he looked huge." My first thought was steroids, but then I said, "Nah, it's Tiger Woods." Now I'm rethinking that thought process. It appears that Major League Baseball's walking pharmacy, Alex Rodriguez, is also connected to Galea. So, with the light back on Galea, and a potential tie to Rodriguez, it's only a matter of time before it comes back around to Woods.

Entertainment
Netflix app for the iPhone - Apparently, Netflix is exploring the idea of creating an application for for the iPhone. The application would let you stream movies while using a Wi-Fi connection. I think this is a great idea.

Wednesday Art: Black Feather

Random Thoughts From This Week (20-26 Feb)

World Events

• Detroit Relocation Plan - Being from Michigan, I'm always interested in the welfare of the state; especially Detroit, because Detroit is what people think of first when they think of Michigan - and it's usually not positive thoughts. Detroit mayor Dave Bing looks to be moving forward with an interesting idea: He is going to try to "downsize" the city by moving city residents from blighted areas to more sustainable areas. The idea is to conserve city resources and focus them on fewer areas. A recent study of the city suggests that thirty-six percent of city property is occupied by vacant homes or empty lots. I'm not exactly sure what that statistic means, but it sounds like a lot to me. Bing's idea is interesting. If nothing else, it's thinking outside the box. In other Detroit news, here's an AP article on a guy who helped further run the city into the ground.
• Global Warming/Climate Change - Record cold weather in Europe. Record snowfall in Washington, D.C. Pummeling snow storms in the Northeast, and snow fall across the Southern United States. Large chunks of ice breaking off the polar ice caps and the shrinking of the polar ice caps. SOMEBODY GIVE ME A STRAIGHT ANSWER ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING/CLIMATE CHANGE!

Technology

• Chatroulette - I read about Chatroulette in a venture capital blog I follow. I gave Chatroulette a whirl and was intrigued by the simplicity of the idea, and could see a bunch of potential. Thought I would pass it along to you all. One of the intriguing things about Chatroulette was nobody seemed to know who created and manged the site. Well, the New York Times figured it out. Give the article a read. It's very interesting. WARNING: Chatroulette does not have any "moral police" control measures, so there can be explicit material.

Sports

• Nothing Significant to Report (NSTR) - I know, people will say, "What about the Olympics?" I'm just not into the Olympics. I follow the headlines, but don't feel inspired to go out of my way to watch any of the events. For me, the months after the Superbowl until the NCAA Tournament are the sports doldrums. I'm mildly interested in the NHL, but really only the playoffs and finals. I have no interest in the NBA. And I only get excited about NCAA basketball for the Tournament.

Entertainment

• iTunes Sells 10 billionth Song - That's mind boggling to me. 10 billion songs!? iTunes, which was introduced in 2003, is the top music retailer in the U.S.

Wednesday Art: A Bloody Mess

Form Follows Function: Teaching Kids to Succeed in Life, Not Pass a Test

This is a great Op-Ed from NYT's Bob Herbert on a successful charter school developer in NYC. Deborah Kenny has developed three charter schools in Harlem - two middle schools and one high school. Her formula is pretty simple: Hire passionate teachers. Give them the ability to be flexible and creative. And demand excellence from teachers and students alike. “We’ve created a culture that brings out the passion of the teachers and they bring out the passion of the kids.”

Kenny raised her kids with the below core principles, and she uses them as principles for her schools.

- Be wholesome in character

- Be compassionate and see life as a responsibility to give something to the world

- Have a sophisticated intellect

- Be avid readers, the kind of person who always has trouble putting a book down

- Be independent thinkers, to lead reflective and meaningful lives

I want my daughter to go to a school like this, and I'm not sure public schools offer this kind of option. Everyone preaches that education is the path to success in life, but we don't practice what we preach.

Kenny's principles offer every parent and teacher a recipe for success. Her five principles are the function. The form that follows is a child that grows into an adult who is a contributing member of society.