America, You're Getting Old

Not in the antiquated, old school European way. More in the, you're no long a world leader in everything, so get over it, okay? kind of way. The more I read the more I truly believe that America was the country of the 19th and 20th centuries, but we will not be the driving force of innovation or the mecca of world culture in the 21st.

Architecture: A new 80-story skyscraper to be constructed in Dubai, designed by an Italian, with 79 wind turnbines between the floors (so that not only is it energy efficient, it ADDS to the power grid)... THAT MOVES! You have to read the article from BBC and watch the video.

Technology: Indian-born developer's technology for cellphones is being widely adopted in Japan... not the US where his company is based. An example: using your phone as an e-wallet:

"Instead of printing out online coupons, movie tickets, and boarding passes - and toting around credit cards and gift cards - consumers will son be able to store bar codes in their phones."

Want that soda from the machine? Point your cellphone at it and it will deduct the money from your account. Oh man, can you imagine how much easier it would be to have a tab at the bar? You could point your cell phone, text your drink choices, and voila, no jostling for the bitchy bartender's attention. (Only downside, imagine the problems if you LOSE your phone.)

(I'm going to look for some more examples perhaps, I'll be back)

Only boring people get bored.

It's one of my favorite quotes of all time is from my Meme (grandmother for those not familiar with Quebecoise).

So when I saw this at Copley today (part of a Hugo ad campaign), I had to share:

A place for your stuff

Last Monday of co-op. George Carlin died yesterday (NYT article).
And somehow that combination made me want to post his, "A place to put your stuff."

Love that dirty water.

---

24-point defecit. Game 4. Los Angeles. And still the C's managed to come through.

Reminds you of the 2004 ALCS when the Sox were down 3-0 and somehow managed to win 4 straight against the Yankees before sweeping the World Series.

Last night at Greatest Bar, not only was everyone chanting the requisite BEAT LA and DE-FENSE, there were a few rounds of "Fuck LA! Fuck LA!" basically to the tune of "Yankees Suck!" Ah, Boston we love you. It's nice to have a fresh rivalry to focus on and some new colors to sport proudly. But maybe most of all, it's nice to know that when the Finals are over we still have 3 (or 4) months of baseball left. (Plus my hubby just officially became a US citizen!)

Stark Raving Sane and the Bad Idea Bears

You know when you're in a great mood? Like, truly a great-everything-is-wonderful kind of mood? I love that feeling.

It's summer. It finally feels like summer. This heat wave has sufficiently thawed Boston out of the last 6 months of winter/sleet/rainy/gray days. Kids were swimming in the fountain at Copley square yesterday - not just splashing around, but legit swimming in it. I sat down at my desk on Tuesday and after about 20 minutes noticed an extra post-it note stuck to my monitor - "I (heart) Carr!!" The two intern boys have made the last month here so, so much better.

Last night after work we out to watch karaoke at Club Cafe with my "she-shes" hanging out. We had to much fun judging people and drinking vodkatonics (I want to be able to TASTE the alcohol I'm drinking tonight). After Club Cafe we went to Fritz, also on the gay Boston circuit because it's the holiday right now in Boston -- that's right it's Pride Week! If the Boston social scene is like that of a small town, then the city's gay scene is comparable to a mansion. Everyone knows everyone - hags included.

I'm actually kind of sad I'm leaving the city this weekend. But anyways, this entry was rather useless, so I'll leave you with a few fun things to check out:

---

This post brought to you by:
Stronghold in Siam - On the Rebound
The Help - Thunder and Bison
The Bad Idea Bears - buy some beer! (or in our case, VodkaTonics)

And stumbled upon a few quotes from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (add that to the re-read list):

• Half of what he said meant something else, and the other half didn't mean anything at all.
• We cross our bridges when we come to them, and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered.
• We are tied down to a language which makes up in obscurity what it lacks in style.
• Guildenstern: A man talking sense to himself is no madder than a man talking nonsense not to himself.
  Rosencrantz: Or just as mad.
  Guildenstern: Or just as mad.
  Rosencrantz: And he does both.
  Guildenstern: So there you are.
  Rosencrantz: Stark raving sane. (This one is for you Ris.)

The revolution will be televised, blogged, and podcast

Obama - Change I hope to believe in
Politics absolutely blow my mind sometimes. Obama has been crowned the Dem's nominee finally after a long, hard, and bitter road through primary season. At the time of my primary in New Hampshire, way back when, I voted for Edwards because his policies aligned most closely with what I feel are right. (One of the best websites for objective comparison: The Pew Forum for Religion & Politics.)And, partly I see now, because I didn't want to have to choose between the first black nominee and the first woman nominee for the big seat in this country. As the battle raged on, I found myself irritated with HRC for failing somehow - failing to be the WOMAN candidate, failing to capitalize on what many saw to be her greatest weakness. So now that the party's decision has been made, and even though I'm registered independent, I'm going to learn as much about Obama as I can and pray to god in November we make history.

Listening to his speech after the last primaries, I can't help but feel what most of his supporters have felt all along - that slight twinge of hope. Maybe? Maybe this candidate will do what he says he can, or at least he'll try, maybe he can save our country from being the ridiculed, petulant teenager of the world. We'll see what happens in the months to come.

Michael Michalko - Creative Negotiation
Interesting read about 2 people, 3 coins, and the way we negotiate power, assets, and position with each other. Reminds me of the mother who has one kid cut the peanut butter sandwich in two and then lets the other kid choose which side he wants. Cut unfairly and you're likely to get screwed, so you're better off being fair out of the gate. And who knows, maybe one day you're brother will give you the whole damn thing in exchange for your extra cookie.

New Math
And sometimes you just need something silly to make you laugh. Mike, the infinite YouTube master (at least to me), sent me this link last night: Bo Burnham - New Math.

Honey, why aren't the kids working too?

Brett at Pursue the Passion noted these facts from a Northeastern University study today:

• The average teen employment rate for January-March 2008 was 33.5%, implying that 1 out of 3 teenagers were employed. This is the lowest rate since 1948.
• Eight years ago, in 2000, the employment rate for teens was 45.2%, a difference of 11.7 percentage points.
• If teens had been employed at the same rate as 2000, there would be another 2 million teens working in 2008.
• During the national job recovery from the third quarter of 2003 to the end of 2007, total civilian employment rose by 8.747 million workers. The number of employed teens at the end of the boom compared to the beginning was 10,000 workers lower- despite continued growth in the size of the teen population.
from The Continued Collapse of the Nation’s Teen Job Market and the Dismal Outlook for the 2008 Summer Labor Market for Teens: Does Anybody Care?

But seriously. Is it because there are no jobs for teenagers, or because teenagers don’t want jobs, or even because they don’t want CERTAIN jobs? Whichever answer says a lot more about our society I think than the statistics alone.

If it’s because there’s no jobs — do we speak the “r” word (one we don’t use here in the investment industry yet) and cite broad rises in unemployment? Or is it attributed to a crowding at the top as more boomers work later into life, leaving less room for everyone to move up the later?

However, if it’s because kids don’t want certain jobs or jobs at all - are we raising lazier teenagers? Are we over educating and unemploying them? (Sometimes I even feel superbly frustrated by the monkey-like manual data tasks I have to complete.)