What's Wrong with this Picture?

While I consider myself fairly well grounded and generally capable of keeping the world in perspective, I admit that I am not immune to certain petty aggravations. I have alluded to such petty aggravations in previous posts when I was annoyed at Starbucks and when I was bewildered by our national caffeine obsession.

I snapped the photo above yesterday, while feeling both annoyed and bewildered. Naturally, it happened at Starbucks.

I went in with my 12 year-old and our brief visit was, in part, a reward for her completion of a very challenging but successful year in school. I should note that I was feeling a little disheartened that she considered Starbucks to be a destination of such high interest. As we entered, my fears about the corruptive influences of hyper-consumerism and peer-pressure were just below the surface.

Once inside, I was forced to wait in a long line of fashionistas, ordering incredibly ridiculous sounding concoctions, that took a long time to make and were, by all logical measures, way over-priced. I began to feel disappointed in the collective intelligence of my community, impatient about waiting for something I didn't personally think was worth waiting for, and pessimistic about the bleak future of humanity. But I pressed on.

After we ordered and positioned ourselves at the end of the bar where the drinks are served, I snapped the picture above.  As you can see, there was a crowd of children awaiting expensive caffeinated drinks. It struck me as wrong on every level.

In all honesty, I don't feel like I can afford to frequent Starbucks on a regular basis. Technically, I have the funds available; I just don't think coffee that costs $4/cup is a good value, and I don't think one should make a habit out of low value activities. Starbucks is convenient and always available when you need a coffee, but how can a 12 year old afford to pop in daily on the way to school?

One of those silly drinks plus a pastry (the standard order I observed) costs about $7, which is $35 per school week. I'm pretty sure you can lease a Honda for that amount.  How can 12 year-olds who have never worked a day in their lives, afford more than me, a haggard old duffer who has worked 70 hour weeks for the past 20 years?

What is wrong with this picture?

Real People, Real Life

I love it when real people are faced with an unexpected challenge and their natural reaction is honest and admirable.  It's even better when the whole incident is caught on film, their decision process plays out on their face, and the final result is noble and just.

Imaginary reader "Aunt Rose" called just such an instance to my attention today...enjoy!

NASA Junior High School

So I'm not saying that all NASA employees are still in Junior High School, just the ones currently controlling the Mars Rover, an $800 million dollar remote control vehicle for exploring the red planet.

Apparently, once the requisite samples were drawn from the planet's crust, measurements of the atmosphere were completed, and the general topography of the terrain was mapped, someone stepped away from the joystick and the Junior High kids took over the controls.

Dont believe me?  Check it out...

As you can see, these kids quickly maneuvered the Rover around to draw a large penis in the red sand, backed it away, and snapped a photo, which they immediately transmitted home and posted to their facebook accounts.  Unfortunately, all of the bloggers with Junior High mentalities then predictably downloaded the photo, and further amplified the foolery by promoting the image to their imaginary readers.

Lawyers Finding New Ways to Die

You can't make this stuff up, folks.

Lawyers need to make a living and inventing new ways to blame corporations for accidents is great for business.  In fact, helping corporations protect themselves from lawyers who would blame them is also quite profitable.

This is a photo of an actual sign, on an actual gas pump, where I actually bought some gas recently.

What I want to know is this:  Has any gas-pump patron ever spontaneously combusted when static electricity ignited the fumes around the pump?  Ever?

Think about the waste in this folly.  Consider the time and effort some commercial team had to put into the consideration of this warning, the legal fees and effort associated with drafting the message, the design, printing and distribution of stickers for all the pumps across the nation that now bear this sticker.    What an utter, misguided waste of effort.

I think this was at the root of Auggie's rant back in 2009 when he wrote about "The Blame Game".

Overall, I think we have a pretty good legal system compared to others around the world.  I also think that it is systematically exploited by profit-minded lawyers.

Spring!

No better way to welcome spring than to have a couple of business meetings, on a park bench, in the shadow of a shiny MLB stadium. Actually, there are probably many better ways to welcome spring, but I went with the park bench thing.

This is Petco Park in San Diego, one of the nicer stadiums I have visited (and the nicest one, in the shadow of which, I ever conducted business)

Day Feels Scientific

Some people denote today as "Pi Day" day. This is based on the fact that today's date (3/14) represents the first digits in the numerical representation of the (inexact, surrogate) fraction 22 over 7, commonly denoted as "Pi" by Greek mathematicians. We all learned that Pi represents the ratio of a circle's circumference to it's diameter, a number approximately equal to 3.14.

Adding to the day's scientific feel is the fact that Albert Einstein, the first scientist to reach rock star celebrity status, was born on this day in 1879.

For my part, I will contribute to the minor celebrations by sharing this minimalist artist representation of his likeness. The image is from Noma Bar, her collection of such images is worth browsing.

For those of you who favor the arts over the sciences, your day is tomorrow: the ides of March.  Imaginary readers who taught English in the Knox area will appreciate this.

Cats are Jerks

No need to elaborate. Read the title, watch the video, close the case.

The End of Society

The Roman Empire fell when wealth became so great, and so widely distributed, that the privileged lifestyle of an expansive upper class became too heavy for society to bear.  In retrospect, it seems clear that a majority can never live in idle comfort based on the productivity of a laboring minority.  It only works the other way around.

Alas, as the saying goes, "history repeats itself", and I think American society is about to collapse.  I base my hypothesis on the photo above, similar to one I snapped myself a few days ago at a local retail center.  It shows that, despite high unemployment, the wealthy masses have grown so unable to care for themselves, that we need a nail spa on every corner to provide us all with basic grooming.

The spa in this photo is like one of an ever-expanding multitude of similar outlets.  I dare say there are more nail spas in Orange County, California than there are Starbucks (and there are way, way, way too many Starbucks).

This truly boggles my mind...adults paying other adults to groom them...so many in fact, that we need these outlets on every corner...and they are always full of customers...can we get any more ridiculous?

The end is near.

50 States with Equal Population

Interesting thought piece.

How would the USA look if the state lines were redrawn to divide the land into 50 states of equal population?  Here is one version.

Lincoln: Too Great to be on the Penny

I know he's on Mt. Rushmore and that he has his own monument on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., but somehow, I think I never realized the true greatness of Abraham Lincoln.

A few years back, when Barack Obama was debating Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries, I recall news that "Team of Rivals", an historic account of the Lincoln Presidency, had been a driving influence for Obama.  Since he was so unknown at the time, I took an interest in that book as a source of insight as to what the young candidate might be about.

However, given my habit of buying books at a faster rate than I read books, I didn't get around to cracking the weighty, and densely written tome until recently.  After seeing the Spielberg film, that is reportedly based "in part" on the book, I decided it was time.

This is not a book review, though if it were, it would be glowing.  This is just a short collection of thoughts I felt like sharing:

Lincoln exploded from relative obscurity and gained the Republican nomination for President through a shrew political strategy.  The newly formed Republican party was an amalgamation of three former parties, each headed by a well-established, political heavy-weight.  Each of those heavy-weights had their own,  strong pocket of support, and each was considered to have a good shot at the nomination; Lincoln was considered an also-ran.

Knowing that each powerful faction would attack the other two rival factions, Lincoln set out to be everyone's second choice. In this way, he stayed out of the direct line of attack and, as each rival candidate was rendered "unelectable" by the press from the other two, Lincoln secured the nomination.  When all three came together to support him in the election, the Republicans carried the day and had their first President.

The title of the book comes from Lincoln's sharp break with tradition of the time.  He eschewed the custom of awarding plum cabinet jobs to his closest supporters and like-minded allies, and instead, appointed political enemies to several key cabinet positions.  This would be like Obama nominating Newt Gingrich for Secretary of State and John Boehner as Treasury Secretary.  From what I gather, it was as unthinkable then as it would be today, but he did it.

It is clear that even Lincoln's contemporaries recognized the historic magnitude of his character.  Leo Tolstoy, renowned thinker and writer of the time, said "the greatness of Napoleon, Caesar or Washington is only moonlight by the sun of Lincoln".  Perhaps the metaphor got away from Tolstoy but, if not, that's an enormous difference to draw between any man and the greatest known leaders of the day.

Maybe (probably) I wasn't paying attention in school but I never knew that Lincoln was assassinated as part of a plot to kill him and two other key figures.  On the same evening, Lincoln was shot, Secretary of State Seward was stabbed in the throat (but survived), and Vice President Johnson escaped harm when his would-be assailant had a change of heart.

Finally, the book made clear that political divisiveness was as sharp in Lincoln's day as it is today.  A speech by the President would have been hailed as a visionary milestone by one media outlet, while characterized as short-sighted hypocrisy by another.  The key difference I think is that, in those times, the masses understood clearly that all press was agenda-driven. I can't say for sure that is the case today.

Overall, great guy.  Too great to be on the penny.