The Societal Impacts of my Coffee Consumption

I love coffee. I love the smell, the taste, the feeling after the first sip. Rarely a day goes by that I don't have coffee and never a day goes by when I don't have coffee at work. I also have an interest in Public Administration. That interest stemmed from a PA class I took in college that I hated until I was able to apply it to real life and my job. The most important thing I learned in that class from Dave Ivers was that if as an employer your workers are producing at 50% of their capacity, you as an employer are playing about par for the course. With that thought in mind its comical to think about the 40 hour work week. I'm convinced though that there are a ton of public administrators out there that assume their employees work at 100% capacity for exactly 40 hours per week. I find it even more ridiculous that the impression is that the amount of work someone is assigned should take exactly the amount of time that employee works - miraculous. People are literally tied to a 40 hour a week job that could be done in 15 hours a week. Sure there are exceptions but that is largely the case. People always claim to be "busy", busy googling your own name does not constitute 100% of a workers capacity.

Since its the day before vacation I started thinking about how unproductive I was being and noticed that it killed time to refill my coffee. I thought it would be interesting to see how much productivity is lost in a given year because of my drinking coffee.

During the average work day I fill my coffee cup between four and five times. Each trip takes about 45 seconds and I actually make the coffee about two times per week, which takes about 4 minutes.

So 4 times per day x 45 seconds x 5 days a week = 15 minutes per week to pour coffee
Two times per week brewing coffee x 4 minutes = 8 Minutes per week to make coffee

So far 23 minutes per week.

What happens when you drink a pot of coffee in the morning? Bathroom break! I'd say in a given day I got to the bathroom 3 times per day because of all the coffee. At 2.5 minutes per trip (its down the hall) that is conservatively 7.5 minutes per day.

7.5 minutes per day times five days a week 37.5 minutes per week of secondary affects of the coffee.

So 23 minutes for coffee making and pouring and 37 minutes for those secondary affects we have 60 minutes per week.

We'll remove vacation time and say 60 minutes times 50 weeks per year for the annual total of 3,000 minutes or 50 hours. My work week is 37.5 hours which means 1.33 work weeks (conservatively) are used up directly because of my coffee consumption. In our "budget" the average cost for a staff hour is 40 dollars (we're frugal) that is just personal costs not indirect or other.

So 40 dollars times 50 hours is $2,000 per year in lost productivity. I'm not the only one who drinks coffee either.

I'm an administrative nightmare!

My cup is empty, time to refill.

Merry Freakin' Christmas

Ann Arbor is a very, how can I put this...liberal town. Even though I grew up here I never really noticed it like I do now. It might not be as bad as some people say but sometimes the political correctness seems a bit over the top.

I don't know when this happened, perhaps I only really notice it now because a friend of mine pointed it out, but nobody says Merry Christmas anymore. Why is everyone afraid to tell ME Merry Christmas? I can understand saying Happy Holidays on a news broadcast but when did Merry Christmas become taboo? If someone said Happy Kwanza to me I wouldn't be offended. Happy Chanukah?- Hey to you too, put on your yamaka and celebrate Chanukah- good for you. I'll stop my rant before I begin to babel but it's like this country is losing its identity because we are afraid that others will get their hurt feelings. Let's be proud of our history and traditions. Part of that is tolerance and acceptance of non-majority religions but that doesn't mean giving up your own identity.

So please, can I get a Merry Christmas?

Les Wasn't More or The Road to Rich's

Despite the near foot of snow and the fridged temperatures in Ann Arbor there is certainly a sense of relief circling the town about it's newest employee, Rich Rodriguez. After Michigan's head football coach Lloyd Carr announced his retirement in November the area has been a buzz with speculation which first climaxed the morning of the SEC football championship game between Louisiana State and Tennessee. Kirk Herbstriet reported that LSU's Les Miles had agreed to become the next coach at Michigan. This was confirmation of rumors that had run rampant for weeks. It seemed the logical fit, he was a "Michigan Man" with great ties to Ann Arbor and this was his dream job. Everyone KNEW he was going to Michigan. The problem was, Herbstriet's source was wrong and Les Miles signed a new lucrative contract to stay at LSU.

I was no exception to the Miles love fest. The guy seemed like the perfect fit. Miles and Ann Arbor were like two giant bodies with gravity accelerating them at each other faster than the media could keep up with (or slower than they could create it-hmmm).

After the love affair with Miles died down some (it never completely did) Michigan was in talks with Greg Schiano, the coach of Rutgers, the Scarlett Knights, College football's Cinderella team of 2006. Schiano said "I've decided to remove my name from consideration". And Wolverine nation let out a collective sigh of "Would've been nice", and then silently thought: were still getting Miles!

And just as Ann Arbor's nerves were tensing up, fearing nobody wanted to come to Michigan Rich Rodriguez was announced as the next coach of Michigan Football.

The improbable, up and coming coach from West Virginia breathes a breath of fresh air to wolverine.

It became apparent that changes were needed for the Michigan football program. Those changes were needed once Lloyd Carr decided to retire, up until that point he was doing just fine in my book.

So now instead of pure speculation I am excited about the ACTUAL new coach. He's almost everything I'd hoped for in a new coach. My two biggest concerns were that the next coach was young and that he planned on staying at Michigan for a long time. We'll see about the latter but he did mention in his press conference that he'd be at Michigan until about the time his son would be the top QB prospect in 2017, thats good to hear.

I'm nervous about the growing pains but excited about a "new" Michigan football program.

Matt Groening, I owe you one

I've watched The Simpsons regularly since it came out about 18 years ago. I didn't know what the Tracy Ullman show was, but I probably would have watched it there too, but, I was eight! I have the first eight seasons on DVD (I'm falling behind) and I throw one of them in two or three times a week. It's also on every night at 11 on the new CW channel (what does CW stand for?). What I'm getting at is that it really is a comfort for me. Since I've been watching it since I was in 4th grade and am so familiar with all the episodes, just hearing the theme song has a way of relaxing me.

I ended up having a particularly difficult day at work today. Trapped, puppet, pawn, peon, are the words that come to mind to describe the way I feel and the way I am treated. I usually try to calm down on the drive home and often Mitch Albom does the trick but today I was listening to Bill Simonson on the ticket 1050 WTKA talking about George Mitchell's steroid probe in baseball. Not the most relaxing thing. So by the time I got home I was still stressed. I played a few Guitar Hero songs and had a lunchable but was still felling down. So at about 7:30 I popped in season 7 of The Simpsons, hit play all and have been relaxed ever sense.

So to Matt Groening, thanks for the pick me up and I'm sorry about the copyright infringement.

To go or not to go: My ten year high school reunion

I think I'm reaching one of those first milestones of old age. And by that I don't mean OMG I can't believe I'm 22. Well, I guess it may seem that way for some. Anyways, the emails and messages are beginning to flow in about my ten year high school reunion.

I'm helping with what I can, submitting emails of people I know and at least staying in the loop. The truth is though, I don't even want to go.

What makes this experience a little different is the advent of social networking sites between graduation and today, specifically myspace and facebook. When I joined each one of those, the thing I liked to do was search for old friends and acquaintances from high school whom I'd lost touch with (which was about 98%). One of the things that struck me was how many people I don't remember, and by that I mean I've never heard of the person.

Here's what happens to me though when I find someone through those networking site that I DO remember well from high school. I'll go on their page, see where they went to school and what is going on with them. A part of me wants to reach out and reminisce about the good ol' days but the other part of me is worried that they'll think "wow, this loser can't let high school go".

Normally I don't concern myself with what people think (ok that was a lie) but isn't the point of a high school reunion REALLY to try to prove how much more successful you are then others and to see how unsuccessful others are?

Of course there will inevitably the people that run up to you and remember more things about you in high school then you do, then another person will come up and expect you to introduce the person of which you can't remember their name. I've got a few outs in that situation, a violent coughing fit, cell phone call, waiting for the person to introduce themselves and then apologize and pretend you didn't even realize you hadn't done the introducing. Of course, none of those make you feel comfortable about it.

And of course there will be the awkwardness when you find a group of ten people and you realize you didn't talk to 3/4 of them in high school, so why should you now?



Conversely, I suppose meeting up with everyone and talking about those good ol' days would be good, after all it was a pretty important 4 years we spent together.

I've got 9 months to think about it. Should I go?

My blog is full of fuel

While I told myself I'd be careful not to blog too much about blogging, this post is to give thanks to a blogging community that has welcomed me in with arms wide open. I was yearning for an online community that was exactly that: a COMMUNITY. Not just an assemblage of bloggers trying to promote themselves. I wanted to learn and share with a group of people whose focus is to make bloggers the best they can be.

Fuelmyblog lets people view blogs on a variety of different topics and lets readers "add fuel" if they like what they see. The more fuel that is added, the more notoriety you may gain. Probably more importantly than that, the FMB forums offer an opportunity for everyone to introduce themselves and to get help from bloggers quite literally across the world. The site helps users promote through word of mouth instead of just allowing a place for meaningless self promotion.

So if you are a new blogger, or interested in starting a blog I highly recommend you join fuelmyblog.com. Your questions will be answered and you'll certainly get your name out there.

The site was generous enough to select me as the blog of the day. A humbling honor, the type that really keeps the drive alive and makes me feel even more welcomed in by a great group.

And speaking of that community, I would be remiss if I didn't mention a great accomplishment of the theirs, a book! Click here to find out more on this exciting product.

And so, thank you to fuel my blog for this award which I will proudly display!

Photoshop buttons

The last few days I spent some time improving the look of my blog. While blogger templates make things really easy to manipulate, it has its limitations. So I created a new header in photoshop and made a few small hacks to the html code.

In addition to the banner, color and font changes I also spent some time looking around different websites set up for bloggers and social bookmarking, all that web 2.0 stuff. I noticed that a lot of these sites used similar styling in their logos. After examining them I thought I could probably create similar things pretty easily with my limited self-taught knowledge of photoshop.

It sounded fun, so I went ahead and created, I guess I'll call it a logo, for this blog. Cool eh?



Feeling pretty good about it, I went ahead and made one for Amy's online portfolio (note work in progress). She's pretty busy with school and hasn't been able to do much with it yet. So here is the one I came up with for Amy Connor Live.




Let me know what you think. These are a little bit larger than what I'd recommend using on a blog or site, but, you get the picture. If you are interested in having me make one for your blog leave a comment. Unless I get a bunch of requests I'll even do it for free.

Tick tock... Your Magna Carta is showing!

I'm so bummed its Monday. Minute by minute the day is slowly passing. However, I'm convinced the clock on my computer has a glitch that makes it skip back 20 minutes for each half hour that passes.

And so as time marches on...slowly... I find my mind wandering and thinking about time. Much like my thoughts on space, I have a real interest in time. It's very intriguing to me to think about things that happened 100, 200 or 1,000 years ago. Even more than thinking about them it's thought provoking to me to see some of the remnants of the things we read about. The Coliseum, the Declaration of Independence, DINOSAUR BONES.

So all this deep thinking reminded me of a news story I heard over the weekend that I thought you'd enjoy. It involves a piece of history that is, well, timeless.

One of the 17 remaining copies of the Magna Carta is going up for auction. Yep THAT Magna Carta. While admittedly I didn't realize before this weekend that there were 17 copies left of it, the founding document of modern democracy, I still find the fact that a private citizen can purchase a copy quite interesting. Of the 17 copies, 15 remain in Great Britain throughout the archives, one is in Australia (I don't know why either) and the last is being sold. The lucky auction house is Sotheby's ((BID) for those of you investors out there). The document will be auctioned on December 18th and is expected to fetch between 20 and 30 million dollars. So while I won't be able to match that (unless that lotto ticket is luckier than it looks) I am very jealous of whomever will end up with it. I mean, talk about a center piece to your art collection.

And what a great ice-breaker for when you have company over!

Hey what's that thing framed in your hallway?
Why, thats the Magna Carta.
By jove!

I'm certainly envious of the winner. He or she will undoubtedly have much to think about each time they pass it by.

And I'm still stuck here, tick, tock, I hate this damn clock.



Once information of the auction is available I'll be sure to update this post with any information I can find.

UPDATE the lucky auction winner was David Rubenstein from the USA. Reported price 21.3 Million USD.

Bloggers Block

I started blogging about five months ago. Since then I've learned an awful lot.

One of the first things I learned about this blogging business is that just about everybody blogs about blogging. At first that didn't make any sense to me, but then I realized how many others are out there like me that constantly seek out new ways to get people to listen to what they have to say. From reading all the blogs about blogs I ascertained that there are really three types of blogs.

Personal Blogs - A persons journal or description of their experiences.
Niche Blogs - Where a blogger sticks to a topic that they are (hopefully) an expert on.
The General Blog - A multi topic, catch all.

The latter of all these is, according to the blogosphere (I've been waiting to use that word), by far the most difficult. Like an idiot I of course chose the most difficult.

Not surprisingly I was writing with about three loyal readers, myself included.

I sought out comments on my blog everywhere and anyway I could. Unfortunately since my topics vary so greatly, one person's favorite part was another person's only frustration. Lot's of people don't want to read about Michigan football, but then others want to hear about it if for no other reason than Michigan football is something I'm very passionate about.

After considering everyones advice and thinking more about what I want to do with this blog I thought back to my first post. I think I was on to something. This really is my sounding board.

I was beginning to worry too much about what to write to gain and retain readership and not enough about having fun. I was also worrying too much about toeing the line to please everyone with my opinions (although I'm getting better at speaking my mind). Really, the point of this is to get out my opinion and if you disagree, thats not a problem, its an opportunity to have intelligent conversation with occasional name calling - that stuff is fun. If there is one thing I can advise at this point in my blogging experience its just that: have fun!

So, while I risk losing a portion of what I've built in terms of readership. With this blog, WYSIWYG. I'll try and add bells and whistles that I think are cool and I'll work on the format of the site (the blogger templates can be a challenge to customize). In terms of topics though, theres gonna be a mix, and some of you aren't gonna like it. Sometimes I'm gonna post about my opinions on current events, sometimes I'm gonna talk about going out at night and hanging out with friends. I'll occasionally post the results of some of my investigations in my ongoing thirst for knowledge and sometimes I'll even get a bit political. I can't tell you how much I've been wanting to write about Michigan and Les Miles this past week. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow!

I hope you enjoy reading this stuff half as much as I enjoy writing it. I hope you digg me, stumble me, comment me and link to me from your own blogs because this blogging stuff is really fun. After all, linking is the most sincere form of flattery to a blogger.

So now that I've reaffirmed the potpourri style of this blog, I need your help to find others like me to boost my blog roll. I've searched high and low, used all sorts of blog aggregator services to find other GOOD blogs that cover at least several topics. If you know of any please let me know.

And for your viewing enjoyment, heres a picture of my cat punching me :)

Security vs. Privacy or The Pursuit of Safety

Where do you draw the line between increased security and infringement on your privacy?

It's an important issue, and hotly contested. With each passing day the likelihood of being caught on film increases. While the United States has been a little less amenable to ubiquitous surveillance than elsewhere, that's not to say that we're not far behind. And in many ways, it has already arrived.

Some people get it right, when it comes to this type of surveillance. They understand that its a necessary evil, especially post Columbine and post September 11.

On a less global scale, this argument has become the hot issue at my old stomping grounds, Ann Arbor Pioneer High school. At Pioneer there is a proposal to add 53 digital cameras to record the hallways, cafeteria and parking lots at the school. After having success at the school district's other large high school, administrators are set to decide on the addition of cameras to Pioneer later this month.

Everything was progressing fine when, all of the sudden, the goddamn ACLU comes to crash the party and protect the rights of the "poor, violated, young future of America" (Yea, I am being sarcastic). Give me a freaking break. Don't you have something better to do with your time? We aren't talking bathrooms, not dorm rooms or college classrooms, we're talking about HIGH SCHOOL. Yes KIDS attending a public high school (how's that funded again? OH, RIGHT!) and there is concern about their privacy in the hallway.

I don't care about the reports that say the investment in major security systems cameras hasn't paid off. This is entirely different. Liz Margolis, the Ann Arbor Public School Director of Communications even said that there weren't any cases she could think of in the time the cameras have been installed at Huron of the cameras catching anyone in the act. However, she is also quick to point out that there HAS been a reduction in the amount of crime and vandalism. Maybe that's because the vast majority, of even the kids that are committing these crimes, are not evil beings, they are kids that KNOW they can get away with stuff. These surveillance cameras would be a deterrent and that's exactly what they have done.

Here is funny little quote from the Ann Arbor News Article "We as Pioneer students were concerned about our privacy, and also about the way that it was brought about," said Bennett Stein, 17, student council executive president.

HA HA HA! PLEASE don't give me that BS. You aren't concerned with your privacy. You're concerned about getting caught! If you just don't want to get caught skipping classes and loitering, just say so. Please save me from this privacy argument. You can't bring a gun to school, can you? Why? Because a group of 3,000 kids has a different set of rules. It's good you have an interest in your rights..but if at 17 you are already siding with the ACLU, I fear the next thing to be taught in the Ann Arbor schools is intelligent design. Kirk Cameron need not apply.


My question is, what the hell could some 16 year old be doing in the hallway that shouldn't be caught on tape? If you don't want your mommy to find out about the guy you are dating then don't go gallivanting around the hallways. And while some may think that these tapes will be FOIA-d, give me a break, the only things that would be interesting enough to show on youtube are things that warrant the cameras in the first place! The PUBLIC school doesn't have some obligation to not tape the FREAKING HALLWAYS. Think of what this could prevent.

So, please ACLU, please go elsewhere to try to protect crime and eliminate punishment.

Condo Courtesy

I'm trying to think of all the cliches to describe condo living.

"Take the good with the bad"
"You can't win 'em all"
"Keep your chin up, kid"
"It is what it is"

While its great to not have to deal with shoveling the walk and having a workout facility 100 feet away, sometimes the conveniences seem to come at a steep price. Consider the following.

After coming EXCEEDINGLY close, yet failing, to making a new HD TV purchase and contributing to the Black Friday epidemic, I found myself in want of..something, ANYTHING. Once my Id kicks in, I have trouble stopping it and end up having to make some grand purchase to get my psyche back in check. To solve it this time I purchased a boxing heavy bag and stand and boxing gloves. After a short two hour assembly I found myself banging away.

As I'm taking out my aggressions on 70 pounds of padding, however, I'm becoming increasingly nervous about annoying my upstairs neighbors. You see, my new boxing station is directly underneath their bedroom.

To ease my fears I've set up two rules for myself with regard to use of the heavy bag.

1. Don't hit the bag after 8 pm or before 10 am
2. Don't workout for more than 45 minutes

I know they can hear me when I'm working out in the garage. I also know they are of the opinion that when you pay a lot of money like we both did for a condo that you expect to not have to deal with noisy, disrespectful neighbors. I'm of that opinion too. Conversely, I paid lots of money for my place and want to be able to do WHAT I want to do and feel this falls within reason, especially when my rules of courtesy are employed.

But what do you think? Are my rules reasonable? Is this sufficient courtesy or am I being a bad neighbor?

If you believe, they put a Michigan man on the moon.

My first real interest in astronomy was piqued about 15 years ago on the gulf coast beaches of Florida. With little light pollution obscuring a night sky view I was able to see more stars at once than at any other time. I started thinking about what was out there, how far things were and different ways to try and comprehend truly astronomical numbers. It was just fun to ask myself all those questions!

I often correct my friends when I hear them say something along the lines of "the moon is bigger than usual tonight". I point out that there is a simple explanation behind why it looks so large. When the moon is near the horizon it appears larger because the eye references it to the size of objects on the ground. This gives the illusion of the moon looking much larger than when it is high in a clear night sky.

With this "point of reference" consideration in mind, I started to think to myself, how big would the earth look from the moon? While I know the earth would look significantly larger in the night sky from the moon, I thought it would be interesting to see what a known point of reference, such as the state of Michigan, would look like on the moon from earth. So, I took an image of the moon and one of Michigan and scaled Michigan to the approximate size it would appear as on the moon. Michigan is approximately 400 miles long and wide and the moon is approximately 2150 miles in diameter which would make Michigan, oh, about 18.5% of the diameter of the moon.

Bigger than I imagined. In this example I have placed the state on top of the crater Copernicus.

So, next time you look up at a full moon, here's something to think about.

Charlemagne, is the check in the mail?

Buck. That's what most of my friends call me. It's too bad I don't like being called that. One year, in college, my fraternity bought shirts that had the person's last name preceded by an "O" on the back, so my shirt was "O'buck". On the front of the shirt was "the only Irish fraternity on campus"... good stuff. When the shirts came I was quick to point out that my family's last name used to be O'Buck but that the "o" was dropped to disassociate the family with those drunken Irish sailors, who were not looked on with particular favor.

It was a good story and made the shirt a good conversation starter or ice-breaker.

While bubbling with Irish pride one day I came across an online ad for ancestry.com. It looked reputable enough so I went ahead an clicked on it. I signed up for a free two week trial membership and was off to the genealogical races. Ancestry has a feature called One Tree which users the information you put in and tries to match it with existing research. This made it possible to go back in time about 200 years in the first day. Every day throughout the next two weeks I found out more. By the sixth day of research (and I use the term loosely) I was already beginning to brag about the ties I was finding. Ironically, I'm not Irish at all. I'm not even sure any of my ancestors set foot on that British Isle. Regardless, you have to admit the O'Buck t-shirt story is a good one. In fact, every link of my fathers family I could get information from is from England. After that revelation I was particularly interested with the line that grants me my middle name, Clayton.

The Clayton family time line begins when Robert de Clayton came to England with William the Conqueror and was granted lands known as Clayton-le-Moors for his important military services during the invasion of 1066. It was as though my family was responsible for Europe coming out of the dark ages. Cool stuff eh?

Cool until you discover the problem with ancestry's one tree feature. The problem stems from everyone wanting to trace their line back as far as possible, just as I was doing. Unfortunately when people do research they are often guilty of being a tad liberal in their assumptions. It's not too much to say that someone had a son when they were eleven and then a daughter when they were 75, right? If the date of death puts a hole in your assumption...it's probably because of some clerical mistake, one of those things that used to happen before we had administrative professionals day. So while I still likely have ties to the "de Clayton's" I haven't as of yet found the missing link".

I discovered the error in my tracing of my Clayton lineage by rechecking information. However, the de Clayton line wasn't the only line I had traced back that far, there was another name that entered the equation that was even more intriguing: Plantagenet. Now THERE is a family name that if you can tap into, you will find your relationships with all sorts of kings.

And once you've gone that far, your link to Charlemagne is intact- the holy grail of genealogical research. I was determined to find a confident link between Charlemagne and myself. I knew there was a few leaps of family assumption but confident I would be able to find the link. Once again I was bubbling with emotion. I truly was the descendant of Charlemagne. Who wouldn't be proud.

Silly me. As it turns out we're ALL related to Charlemagne. Sure it's a bit disappointing but the whole ancestry.com process is a lot of fun. I learned a lot about my English heritage and have since purchased a Flag of England I proudly display at my home.

Adios cousin.

The Taking Issue

What does the term public servant mean to you?

While the name may conjure up images of a fat Colonel Sanders making the back room deal with the public works contractor, in reality, the vast majority are over worked but more importantly under appreciated providers of the public good. Now, what the public good is and what is "good for the public" is an entirely different and very touchy subject. I'll leave that for a snowy day.

I make no secret that my job is essentially red tape, fulfilling "requirements". However, every once in awhile, if only by accident some of the work I do does make a small difference. One of the most challenging parts of my red tape job is the requirements for public involvement. It's not very fun to come to meetings just to get yelled at by, well, I call them crazies, when they don't even pay attention to what you are saying or what you are trying to do. They just look at you and think "government".

That's at least how it happens some places. In others, its no secret (and probably the reason for the publics distrust) that the government presenters come to meetings with the end result in mind and only bring the information to the public to "check the box." Sometimes this isn't a huge deal, the changing of a speed limit or addition of a traffic signal but sometimes these decision truly warrant a DECISION of the people, not just provided for their consideration.

This is certainly the case with the Trans-Texas corridor. I'll get to that topic in a moment.

When I was a young Urban Planning student in my first semester my College professor, Rocky Ward gave us a test with the question "What is the taking issue?" I hadn't done the reading (I never did the reading) and up until that point hadn't had any interest in real world topics like planning and thus had no clue what the answer was. I wish I still had that test to see what sort of rambling excuse for an answer I gave. I quickly learned though that this is one of the most critical principles in planning, or at least in planning ethics. To give you a better understanding of the taking issue take a look here.

Its the ultimate strong arm move by the government. Through zoning communities can regulate the use of land, however, they can't deny economic viability to the property
owner. The "legal" way of repossessing property is through eminent domain, where the property owner is generally compensated. Since we are talking about real property its easy to see how this can be a hotly contested issue.


In Michigan there was a huge issue when proposed portions of I-696 went straight through an Orthodox Jewish community in Oak Park. The Federal Highway Administration has a great case study from this project on community impact mitigation. What resulted from the NEPA process and cooperation from highway planners and community leaders was as close as you can get to a win win situation with something that has the potential to affect a community. Now huge parks span across the freeway and keep the community connected.

The problem that has surfaced, or at least come to the attention of more people is the public taking for private profit, the ultimate inside job. Let me be clear that eminent domain can be a very good thing, its just that it is abused. It has been the impetus for redevelopment in countless areas. Without it, successful infill development, especially in older urban areas, would be nearly impossible.

The Trans-Texas Corridor is one of those abuses of implied power that impresses on the public the thought that eminent domain is only an abuse of power and not a reasonable way to promote the public good. We've all heard that everything is bigger in Texas and this project is no exception. The proposed corridor stretches from Mexico all the way to Oklahoma across Texas farmland.

I came across an interesting little website about the corridor and the abuse of power in the planning of the corridor. It's a property owners worst nightmare: owning your own piece of land minding your own business, paying your taxes, when someone comes to tell you that your home will be destroyed and you will be "compensated."


There's a lot of talk out there about the Trans-Texas Corridor being the first leg of the new NAFTA super highway. If you've ever read "Hard Times" by Charles Dickens, picture the Coketown stretching from Mexico to Detroit. That picture is what the doom and gloomers are painting but this is really just a misunderstanding.

Before we start screaming government conspiracy lets bring ourselves back to the facts on NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. Lots of talk about a new NAFTA superhighway is out there and I think Christopher Hayes does a good job of bringing us back to reality about NAFTA

None the less, I really thought the Truth Be Tolled web site was interesting. If you listen to the trailer it sounds like something out of Braveheart. "They may take our lives, but they'll never take OUR FARMS!" While the fear of the "Superhighway" might at least in part be unfounded, the affects of this corridor are real.



Here's a few more takes on eminent domain. I'll try to add more as I find them.

Tim Brown's Post
Cory on Transcanada and KELO
Nan Brasmer's Real California Eminent Domain Reform without Hidden Agendas

Google is Big Brother

The multi billion dollar global giant knows more about you than you think and it will soon know more.

Google first became an incorporated business in 1998. (GOOG) was first publicly traded in 2004 and has been a stock sensation ever sense, more than sextupling its price per share. It's truly amazing how far the company has grown in ten years. Google is the true epitome of success for an internet company and has become the standard by which all other search engines and for the most part web companies are measured.

In fact, for a web company to succeed, being indexed by Google is essential and without adequate indexing a web company is doomed to failure. Google utilizes what it calls "crawlers". These crawlers constantly surf the net looking for new and updated information and that information is then indexed into the results you get each time you Google your own name. Even the name Google has turned into a verb.

There is no question Google has made many lives easier, created jobs and brought the farthest reaches of the internet to the doorstep of anyone with a computer but at what cost?

Google is scooping up fledgling internet companies like a wangdoodle scoops up oompa loompas for breakfast (pat on the back for that analogy). Lets look at some of some of Google's acquisitions.

Picasa
Youtube
Panomario
Feedburner
Pyra Labs (Blogger)
Keyhole Inc. (Google Earth)

There are about 40 more significant acquisitions not even mentioned.

How does Google know so much about us? Well, there is gmail, so they know who we are friends with. Panoramio and Keyhole help them know where we go, where we want to go and what pictures we take when we go there. The Google search engine keeps track of your web statistics; what sites you visit, how often you go there, how often you go there during work. Blogger lets them know what interests us and our opinions. You get the picture. They even use us to get to know more about each other which then funnels right back to them. Talk about targeted marketing!

If you haven't done it already I would encourage you to enable google's web statistics, you can do so easily from your google homepage after you have created account, which you've already done if you have a blogger blog, or an adsense account. Check back on your statistics after a week or so. You'll feel all dirty inside knowing Google has you in its sights 24 hours a day. While tools->internet options -> clear history might help cover your tracks at work, Google still knows. If you don't have a Google account, sign up for one.

If you think the government knows to much about you, think about who knows even more about you.

Blu-ray or HD-DVD?

I like to be somewhere near the front lines of new technology and as I near the purchase of a new video format player I thought it appropriate to document my findings on the rival Blu-ray and HD-DVD high definition video formats.

Lets look at each individually first.

Blu-ray is the format child of Sony (SNE). The technology was first introduced in the late 1990's but because the REST of technology hadn't caught up there was no easy or cheap way of storing the quantity of data that was needed to reproduce true high definition pictures. Remember that around the turn of the millennium, an 80 gig hard drive PC was a joke and only the true tech junkies even knew what a terrabyte was.

The "Blu" in blu-ray is not just a marketing ploy it actually derives from the technology that makes the storage and reproduction of high def movies possible. If you've ever looked in a CD or traditional DVD player you see that there is a red laser. That beam however operates at a longer wavelength than the blue laser used for the HD format and therefore can not focus on an area narrow enough to pack all the data necessary on an HD disk. The Blu ray disks can store between 25 and 50 gigabytes, yes, gigabytes.

HD-DVD is the format child of Toshiba and was developed after what seems to be some backstabbing of some of the members of the DVD Forum- yes there is such a thing.Read about the DVD Forum here

A decision as to whether or not to endorse the blue laser technology could not be reached and Toshiba, after not backing the technology as Chair of the DVD forum, began development of its own blue laser HD format which was later named HD DVD in 2003.

And so its stands now, there are two HD options which use technology that is just different enough that almost all players will only support one format. Despite their differences the technological ability of each format is virtually the same.

This new format war has left everyone that still has a beta max player in their basement very concerned.

That is really where we stand today, two separate formats that do essentially the same thing fighting each other out to become the standard. We as consumers wishing to be if not on the cutting edge, at least wish to be a technological bellwether for our friends and family are forced to....guess who will ultimately "win".

If you are interested in a non-scientific yet still interesting breakdown of the two formats check this out. It does a good job of describing how each of the formats are being utilized. I am going to focus on what will ultimately decide the war and that is which format the movie studios pick.

No matter how superior one format may be over the other, the real issue is who supports it. There are eight major movie studios:

Paramount
Fox
Sony
MGM
Lionsgate
Warner
Disney
Universal

Universal and more recently Paramount are exclusively HD-DVD
Disney, Fox, Sony, Lionsgate and MGM are all exclusively Blu-ray

Warner seems to be the guy left in the middle making available its movies for both formats and is working on a format that will play on both players that may debut in 2008. This format, called Total HiDef or THD will have the blu-ray format on one side and the HD-DVD format on the other.

The other thing to keep in mind is how the video game world is utilizing the technology.

Sony has the playstation and logically, the current generation play station utilizes Sony's own Blu-ray technology, this becomes important because the Playstation 3 actually plays blu ray disks. A Playstation 3 can actually be purchased for near the price of a blu-ray player.

Microsoft has sided with the HD-dvd format however an add on that costs about $150 is necessary to play HD-DVD's. The fact that Microsoft continues to lose money by producing Xbox systems, I give another check to Blu-ray and Sony.

The key for the war is getting their name included in the vernacular. Here again I give the advantage to Blu-ray. A lot of money was paid to promote the technology and many people understand Blu-ray as the hot new item. HD-dvd by virtue of its name runs the risk of being misconstrued as a technology not a format. Just like "googling" doesn't necessarily mean using the google website, it's become synonymous with using a search engine, much to the chagrin of both google (GOOG), for copyright issues, and Yahoo (YHOO)- the loser of the search engine wars.

Even though the most recent change in movie studios backing a format was paramounts change to exclusively supporting HD-DVD this format war is Blu-ray's to lose. They've got the biggest of the big dogs, Disney on board.

I think its safe to say it's time to go blu-ray shopping. If Disney (DIS) as a supporter of the technology is good how about retail giant Wal-mart (WMT). Check out this Holiday special that offers 15 free blu-ray dvd's with the purchase of a Playstation 3.

The Warren Commission Report or The Thrill of the Hunt

I was a weird kid. One of the nuances that stuck out early in my childhood was an interest in the JFK assassination. I don't remember any particular reason for taking an interest in the subject other than my refusal to agree with conspiracy theorists without what I thought was proof. Like I said...a weird kid.

When I was in 4th or 5th grade, back when doing research meant going to the library, I, by virtue of the Dewey decimal system, borrowed a copy of the Warren Commission Report. While my reasoning isn't particularly sound, I at that time was sure that with the use of my trusty magnifying glass I would be able to solve the mystery once and for all. I was under the impression that not many people analyzed this type of stuff and that if I could only get my hand on the Zapruder film or have time to sift through pictures from the Warren Commission report, I would get to the bottom of the case!

Well, I didn't make the ground breaking discovery, or at least there is nothing I am going to write about here, however, I did come across a fascinating story today that reminded me of my days as a young sleuth. Apparently, last december, some 5,000 images were digitized and made available from the Library of Congress. Upon what I expect were countless hours of scrolling through and examining images, John Richter, a historian found what many people now believe to be a previously unknown picture of Abraham Lincoln shortly before the Gettysburg address. I've included the picture which highlights the supposed President and his characteristic hat.

This renewed my hope that there is still much to be discovered. If simply by reviewing images made available from the Library of Congress with a keen eye one can make a discovery such as this, let the search continue!

In search of College Gameday and Friday's pre-prediction

Tonight a friend and I are going to attend the pep rally for the Michigan football team at the diag. The schedule of the game will make it so that tomorrow we can go and stand in the College Gameday crowd and try to be seen. I've always wanted to think of a creative sign and try to get on TV but that's not going to happen this time.

Later this evening the idea is to walk around Ann Arbor in search of the gameday crew as well as the TV crew. I'm not sure which tv crew will be working this one but I'm expecting Brad Nessler. It'll be fun just to be in town for the atmosphere.

I heard that Corso was supposed to be at Briarwood tonight at the M-Den. It would be cool to go see him there but I don't think there is enough time in the evening to both attend the pep rally, walk around town and make it to the mall.

I entered this week thinking Ohio State was going to win. In fact I was fairly convinced of it. For whatever reason, my opinion has changed. I really feel Michigan will prevail which is a great way to feel, pre-game.

I suppose its prediction time.

Michigan 28
OSU 24

Hart 23 carries for 86 yards and 1 TD, pulled in the third quarter due to injury
Henne 25/38 for 280 and 3 touchdowns

Go Blue!

Michigan's Keys to Victory against ohio State

In an ongoing commentary that will likely lead all the way up to game time, today I'd like to point out what I think Michigan has to do to win Saturday against the hairless nuts.

1. Don't fall behind by more than 10.

To someone that hasn't seen a lot of Michigan football this year this likely sounds like a no brainer. Michigan has shown that it can come from behind on multiple occasions this year. A half time deficit is not a big concern but two touchdowns or more may just be too much to overcome. Conversely, Michigan hasn't had a whole lot of opportunities to play with the lead, often coming from behind late. If they take the lead they need to force it down the buckeyes throat. Ala, Woody "the Clemson hater" Hayes, when you score your 48th point, go for two!

2. Stay healthy

Perhaps the most important x factor are the health of Hart and Henne. Michigan needs 100% from these guys for the entire game, no more half game 100 yard performances from Hart are needed. As Lloyd would say "60 minutes of football".

3. Make Boeckman wish he'd never left c-bus.

Last weeks Michigan game vs. Wisconsin started with all sorts of pressure on Wisconsin's Tyler Donovan. He took some big hits early and it seemed Shawn Crable was going to spend most of the afternoon in the Badgers backfield. Almost back to back personal foul calls seemed to put an end to Michigan's defensive intensity. After those calls Michigan's pass rush was over committing which led to Michigan allowing a what turned out to be (at least for a week) mobile quarterback showcase, like Michigan has been victim to over recent memory. Troy Smith is gone and Michigan needs to plant Boeckman on his rear, not hurries, SACKS!

4. Zoltan Mesko punts like its 1950

I really like Michigan's punter Zoltan Mesko. I'm even in a facebook group called "Zoltan Mesko for Heisman". While his play this year has been generally good, last week was not. He was booting short, returnable kicks. A pet peeve of mine is Michigan punts from the opponents 40-50 yard line. While opponents seem to be able to send Michigan to the shadow of the goal posts, time and time again short Michigan punts will go into the end zone netting 15 to 20 yards. Field position will be big in this game.

5. Win 1st downs.

Michigan was terrible at this last week. Michigan need running backs falling forward for 4+ yards on first down. Jake Long needs to play the game of his life and the have Hart running behind him all game.

6. Stop 3rd and longs

I think opponents favorite down against Michigan is 3rd and 9+. Michigan needs to take advantage of the opportunities it presents itself with by stopping the bucks on 1st and 2nd down. I want to hear the Michigan band playing temptation after every third play in an OSU drive.

The Michigan vs. Ohio State rivalry

Last night HBO played a 90 minute special about the Michigan and ohio State rivalry. I thought it was very nicely done. They had interviews with lots of players, spent an appropriate amount of time on the ten year war between woody and Bo.

Needless to say it got me pumped about this game. I've heard and read from all sorts of papers and online publications and radio shows that the game has lost its luster with both teams losing last week.

Maybe it has nationally, but certainly not locally. Just like last year this game is for everything; outright big ten title and a trip to the Grand-daddy of 'em all, the Rose Bowl. It would have been nice to see Michigan go from a game one Ap State loss to knocking off the number one buckeyes as a symbolic achievement for this years amazing college football season but this game doesn't need anymore spice. It's perfect just the way it is.


Ivan Maisel is now picking Michigan to be the 4th big ten team pick for bowl selection and has them going to the Alamo bowl. A funny thing about Michigan football, everyone expects them to win and when they don't they supposedly suck. Illinois beats Ohio State and they are instantly the crown jewel of the big ten; apparently everyone has forgotten that Michigan beat the same Illinois team and the same "Juice for Heisman" mobile quarterback AT Illinois AT night just a few weeks ago. People use the parity argument on one hand and then say that Michigan's 6 straight victories against Big Ten opponents doesn't matter because its a down year, despite all of the Big Ten Bowl eligible teams.

GHIII and a plethora of pages

Yesterday I picked up GHIII for PS2. What a fantastic game! My confidence of the GH title has been restored after some disappointment resulting from the extremely high price and short list of songs from 80's edition.

The minor tweaks in game play are so subtle that they take nothing away from experience from previous games but allow easier completion of some of the games faster runs. The added forgiveness of the game is necessary coupled with the upped difficulty of this game. The song list is great and new competitive features make it the best guitar game available.

Despite my night with Guitar Hero last yesterday and the unbelievable string of night meetings I have had to attend I have managed to get a lot of reading done. Here's an update:

The Picture of Dorian Gray had a fantastic premise although I felt the story line could have used a little more.

Northanger Abbey at least exposed me to Jane Austen's writing style, which I would imagine will be nice when I read some of her master works but this was a chick book from the beginning- blah.

Crime and Punishment - The best book I've read since Pillars of the Earth and Maybe even Dracula- a must read. I was so interested in this book and the mine of Raskolonikov that I edited an entry on the Crime and Punishment wikipedia page.

Frankenstein - the REAL one, really surprised me. I knew that what the story really was had transformed from what it started as but the original was a fast read and a great look at the desire for want and companionship.

Hard Times - Another Dickens book. Easy to follow, easy to read. My only caution of this book is how much the words are distorted in the speech of "thome of the charactherth".

Sons and Lovers - An Oedipus for the 20th century. The further removed I am from having read this the more I reflect on the characters. The development of the characters is really all this book is about.

Treasure Island - Good story, very fast read, enough said.

My recent string of reading has paid its first dividend. I got a Final Jeopardy literature question correct. I've always been terrible at the Jeopardy lit questions. Watch out Ken Jennings.

If you want any more description about any of the books, just let me know.

Its the Michigan-Michigan State game on Saturday and the game is on ABC. I don't have anything to do like last Saturday so I am looking forward to a great day of football watching.

Columbus Day

When I was in high school I remember being jealous of people who worked at banks. It seemed that every other week there was another obscure holiday that was celebrated only by government. At that time, to me, government was banks and the post office. I myself though am beginning my observance and remembrance of Columbus' journey and the European discovery of America.

It's not even nine and I already have my coffee and will be able to enjoy an entire day off from work. The History Channel is running the modern marvels on "Distilleries".

As they were discussing Scotch, one of the distillers told the legend of the Angels. Apparently each year a scotch sits in a barrel, it loses two percent of its volume to "the angels".

The Michigan football game was a strange one. I was even scared for a while in the beginning but really the game was not as close as the 33-22 score would lead one to believe. I watched the game with a bunch of my friends from Eastern and for 3 hours they might have well all have been from Columbus. The Lions showed their true colors again and I finished another book, Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. I didn't realize it from the description but this was a pretty girly book without much of a plot. The second I thought it might get interesting the drama all evaporated. I'd love to hear if anyone else had a better experience that I did with that book.

I bought The Picture of Dorian Gray last night and got about a quarter of the way through and it promises to be much better.

It's a true pleasure that I am writing this from the comfort of my own home as I remember Chris Columbus.

PTP Certification

Eight weeks ago I made a few posts about the new Professional Transportation Planner Certification affiliated with the Institute of Transportation Engineers. Today I got my results back and am happy to report I passed, and apparently much more comfortably than I had dread the past two months.

Now I can go about figuring out exactly what this means. The acceptance letter poses an interesting suggestion "We hope that you will display it with justified pride and carry out your professional activities in a manner to bring added luster to the title and practice of Professional Transportation Planner." Sounds good to me.

I think I'll go ahead and add it to my email signature. I wonder how long till my boss questions it or asks me to take it off. I'm guessing next Tuesday. :)

Stats, Crusoe and a weekend

It's been a long week at work and its only Thursday. I had two night meetings this week which prevented me from getting home before 7:30. Despite not having as much free time at home as I usually do and despite having lost my debit card, I have been able to enjoy myself a bit. I bought a new book, Robinson Crusoe and will probably finish it tomorrow or Saturday, I played a little guitar and caught up on a bit of sleep.

I also gave blood yesterday. It had been some time since I have donated but having my friend in the hospital requiring 3 or more peoples blood on multiple occasions during less than a week made me realize I need to donate more frequently, it always leaves me with a good feeling anyway. It's not looking great for my friend. Despite the fact that he is in remission, he still requires a long string of chemo and if a match can be found, a marrow transfusion. If everything goes well it may be a year before he is back to work.

Back to happier thoughts...

The other day I was able to incorporate a new feature of feedburner which allow a more thorough tracking of my web traffic to this blog. It's pretty cool to see people from Singapore to New York reading. It'd be nice if there were a few more readers but this blog is still young.

Most likely because its been such a long week, I am looking forward greatly to this weekend. I'm only working a half day tomorrow which will give me enough time to go get a haircut.

The Michigan game once again will be aired on the Big Ten Network which means I have to go to a bar to watch it. I don't mind that too much but its nice having the option to watch it at home. After that I'm going to my moms to help my brother take down a tree in her back yard. As Mr. D-floyd will no doubt comment on it, the Michigan game this weekend is against my alma mater Eastern Michigan University.

That being said..... Go Blue!

Bookstore Euphoria

I periodically go through phases of heavy reading. My last reading fit was mostly a Dan Brown love fest. I read Angels and Demons and Da Vinci Code and Deception Point in a couple of weeks. I switched authors at that point and didn't get past page 40 of the next book. I'm pleased to say though that I am in the midst of another reading spell. I'll give you some background on how it came to pass.

Perhaps my favorite thing to do is walk around Borders or Barnes & Noble.

Before I got any further...

Borders (BGP) USED to me my favorite bookstore. Being an Ann Arbor business it was important to me to support it over its big brother (BKS). I'd grown up around Borders and loved the deals and promotions they offered. After being asked several times to join the Borders Club, I acquiesced. After I joined, every time I made a purchase- coffee, DVD, book - anything, I would get holiday rewards points. It was, oh, 5 or so percent of each purchase that would go into an account which you could use between thanksgiving and new years. Since I would spend a few dollars nearly every week just by picking up a bargain book or coffee as I perused the store, by the end of the year I had built up 50 or 60 dollars for gifts.

A gift card for my grandma, a book for my dad and maybe a few other books for Christmas giveaways.

Borders ended their holiday rewards program so you can no longer build up a Christmas fund as I have for several years. Now the Borders reward program gives you a 5 dollars off if you spend 50 dollars in a month. Not very "rewarding".

I grudgingly began to go to Barnes & Noble, I didn't like that but it was closer to my house and was still a fun place to walk around. (If this is beginning to sound like "You've Got Mail" with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks- bear with me.) After a multitude of inquiries I finally gave in and PURCHASED a Barnes and Noble membership. I got a cute little membership packet and a coupon and emails every week - much as I still do from Borders. With Barnes and Noble though, I get money off with every single purchase. I might even be paying more than I would at Borders but seeing your membership "investment" pay dividends each time I but something just gives me that warm fuzzy feeling.

Back to discussing my current fit of reading.

What may have been the final nail in the borders coffin for me was when I came across the Barnes & Noble Classics Collection. A hundred or so classic titles make up a collection that would make anyone proud. One of the reasons I enjoy bookstores so much is they make me think, reminisce and dream. A part of that is the feeling you get when you look at all the books and imagine what all the stories could be.

The process of reading a book for me begins with the perusing at the book store. Carefully considering the summary, flipping through the first chapter- this is my favorite part. I always have a smile on my face when I have made my selection and go to the counter. The actual reading, ironically enough is my least favorite part of the process. It takes time, effort, more so than even working out! However, when I am finished, having the pleasure of knowing that I completed a book and that I will be forever smarter for it is a wonderful feeling. That "ecstasy", if you will, is what pushes me back to the bookstore to get another book. It's a self perpetuating pleasure that causes these reading fits of mine.

Before I lose the optimism that comes with these reading fits I thought it appropriate for me to write down what this current fit has entailed.

A Tale of Two Cities - The Charles Dickens classic. What stuck with me from this novel was the murderous mob mentality of the French commoners. The Jaques, Madame Defarge and the guillotine. I did feel it moved a bit slow and found Dickens a touch loquacious - a peeve of mine - but a fine work worthy of its status.










The Prince - The Machiavelli "manifesto". Nothing like what I expected. A blunt, immoral manual on the conquering and maintaining of principalities. A fantastic, quick read which left me with visions of global domination matched only by Stewie Griffin.











Candide - Voltaire. The "Forrest Gump" of the 1700's. A fast moving tale of the naive Candide weaving historical fact with the shortfalls of humanity. Another quick read with some comedy mixed in.

---

Tonight its back to the bookstore for me for another Barnes and Noble Classic. You can bet that I'll be armed with my membership card and save 10%.

You too should check out the Classics collection here

College Football Week 4

I was able to watch lots of football Saturday. It was great to see Michigan get another victory. The sting from the first two losses is lessened with each victory from here on out. The schedule looks favorable for the next few weeks so for the time being Michigan seems to be back on track. My friend put it best two weeks ago. We are both very emotionally involved with the football team and how they play. He said after each of the first two losses it felt like there was something physically wrong with himself and that people kept pointing out that disability. It was just a terrible feeling but like I said, at least for now that has passed.

There was a bunch of near upsets and some actual upsets. I was really hoping Ball State would complete an upset of Nebraska but Nebraska has a way of escaping close calls- I'm reminded of the gam against Missouri 8 or so years ago with the last minute play in the endzone and an intentional kick and a lucky reception. Louiville apparently isn't nearly as good as people thought. After falling to Kentucky last week they followed up with a terrible defensive showing against Syracuse who hadn't beating anyone. Brian Brohm has over 550 yards passing and lost- I didn't realie that was possible.

Wisconsin was the recipient of several favorbale calls and was able to hold off an Iowa team that looked like it had fixed its problems from the previous weeks loss at ISU.

One thing I must mention is the Georgia-Alabama game. A great game with a great overtime win for Georgia. One of the funniest thigns that happened though was after Alabama scored in overtime and Georgia was taking over. About 15 seconds before Georgias first overtime snap the announcer asked "What is wrong with Britney?" The other announcer, completely shocked literally had no idea what to say and after a few seconds said something along the lines of "I don't care, I'm more interested in football". I'm gonna go surinf online and see if anyone else is commenting about that.

Apparently I wasn't the only one to notice this and this clip is on youtube. I've included it below.


I think Amy and I are going to the raspberry farm today to get some berries and take some pictures with the Holga.

Sharpton and the Jena 6

I've never particularly liked Al Sharpton. I think he is the epitome of racism in the country and does very little but hurt the causes he so vehemently fights against. (I'd also note that I wanted to put up a picture of Sharpton smiling but the only one that I found was with Ann Coulter- I thought that was just to weird to use.)

When the rape charges were finally dropped against the Duke lacrosse players I was drawn to Sean Hannity's open criticism of Sharpton. Using honest and accurate descriptions of Sharpton's past actions Hannity was able to paint a very convincing picture of his racist ways. Hannity chastised Sharpton the most for his handling of the Tawana Brawley case and frequently played clips with Sharpton uttering antisemitic remarks such as "diamond dealer". Hannity also constantly challenged ol' Al to step to the plate and debate him. When Sharpton FINALLY accepted, the debate at the National Action Network Convention was filled with more of the same; Sharpton's denials and dishonest answers aimed at creating hate.


At the center of the argument was Hannity wanting Sharpton to admit his mistake and to apologize for the things he said about the Duke lacrosse players which of course he refused to do. If some rich white kid's life gets ruined by Sharpton he probably had it coming right?

Around the same time was the Don Imus controversy which would have never been a controversy were it not for Sharpton. Of course there was Sean Hannity again asking where the outrage was for blacks that used the same speech in the same derogatory manner? AFTER all this was of course when Sharpton began to speak out about hip hop culture. No doubt that the only reason he took the stance at that time was because his hypocrisy was becoming apparent even to the most casual listener.

So today I was reading up on what is being dubbed the case of the Jena 6. Again Sharpton is jumping into the spotlight saying that the justice system must be based on the crime committed not who committed the crime- a fantastic point by the way. But what I discovered is that this is not what he is actually arguing at all. The comparison is between a case which happened recently of white kids who hung nooses over a tree limb vs. a group of 6 black kids (the Jena 6) who allegedly beat up a white kid.

Now this is not to say that the actions of the people with the nooses wasn't reprehensible. The prosecutor stated that based on the evidence there wasn't anything he could charge the boys with. (Which DOES seem hard to believe). But how can that be compared to attempted murder? Why is Sharpton jumping to the defense of a group of young black men accused of physical abuse when he has always jumped on the side of the prosecution when the races are reversed. His antics do nothing but enrage and his actions cause nothing good. Why doe Sharpton make cases about WHO did it rather than what the crime was. The hypocrisy is baffling.

Is there something I am missing about this Jena 6 case? Why are the two cases even being compared? I sure hope I'm missing something and this isn't just another vulturisitic attempt by Sharpton to steal the spotlight using a red herring race argument.

Please help me understand this!

True Cost of Transportation

Travel Choice Developments or Transit Oriented Developments (TOD) are quickly becoming the "in" thing for land use and transportation planners. TOD concepts have crept in to the urban planning mindset and are considered by some, including me, to be the best way of completing a livable urban framework. Actually adding transit service is often a deal breaker which makes otherwise livable communities, filled with sidewalks, benches and outdoor restaurants, incomplete.

In Michigan there is considerable talk about adding a commuter rail line between Ann Arbor and the City of Howell. There is also discussion about adding TOD at each of the rail stations. As part of this venture, I am looking to compare the true costs of transportation via auto compared to a ride on the train.

We often only consider the direct costs associated with transportation. For drivers that is the cost of gas and toll's, for transit riders it is fare.

Now there are two ways of looking at the TRUE cost of transportation. One way deals with all the indirect costs or "societal" costs such as the cost of automobile crashes. This method includes everything from air pollution to delay. This is a reasonable method but flawed when we try to look at a users cost.

For example, we may use, as a rule of thumb, a value of time of 10 dollars an hour. This means that an average user would pay 10 dollars to make their travel 1 hour faster. We can relate this by saying if you wait in traffic for a half hour per day your cost is 5 dollars per day. But you aren't really PAYING 5 dollars. You could also consider this lost productivity at work so that if you are paid 30 dollars per hour than society is losing 15 dollars of productivity. If you think about it though the time spent in traffic not at home or not at work would more realistically be turned into time watching TV or time Googling your own name.

The alternative way of measuring the true cost of transportation is a hybrid of direct costs and societal costs, however, from the societal costs I pull out "indirects". These are costs that can easily be attributed to each user.

I'll use this alternative method as I go back to the auto vs. train comparison.


There are two gentleman who live in Howell Michigan, we'll call them Tom and Peyton. Tom and Peyton both have new jobs at the Google Adwords facility in downtown Ann Arbor.

Lets look at each of their days and analyze their transportation costs.

After Peyton has had his coffee and sent the kids to school he jumps in his car for an exciting day of work. Peyton travels down US-23 which is packed with traffic however Peyton doesn't mind the hour commute because he enjoys his alone time in his vehicle listening to Drew and Mike in the morning on WRIF. Peyton gets off the freeway and parks his car in downtown Ann Arbor, he uses his parking pass to get in and out of a structure each day. After a day of meetings, Peyton returns home for a nice dinner.

Peyton's true transportation cost for the day - $25.75

Peyton makes a modest salary of $50,000 a year. To earn that salary Peyton spends approximately 1 hours worth working each day to fund his transportation.

Let's look at how that $25 is spent.

Peyton owns a new Ford Fusion which cost him 20,000, he plans to drive it 15,000 miles per year because be drives 60 miles per day to and from work, 5 days per week. He assumes he can sell his car for 5,000 in five years to a reputable dealer. So we take 15,000 dollars for the cost of owning the vehicle for five years which is a little more than 8 dollars per day.

Peyton's Fusion gets incredible gas mileage and he can do the round trip 60 mile trip and only use 2 gallons of fuel. At $3.00 per gallon, he pays 6 dollars per day to operate the vehicle.

Peyton has always been reliable and he expects the same from his automobile. To ensure this Peyton gets regular oil changes at Victory Lane and spends on average about an additional 250 dollars per year on vehicle maintenance. This works out to be about 1 dollar per day but Peyton is happy to pay this because of the added reliability. This also ensures he can get top dollar for when he trades his car in.

Ever since Peyton got a speeding ticket when he was 16 he has been very careful to do everything by the book. He knows that to legally operate his car he needs vehicle insurance. Plus, if Peyton gets in to an automobile crash he'll need to have his car replaced. The average cost of car insurance in the US is a little under 1,000 dollars per year. Since Peyton's car is relatively new he conservatively estimates his annual car insurance rates to be about 900 dollars. This is about $2.50 per day but a small price to pay for piece of mind.

Peyton's birthday is coming up in a few weeks and he just got mail from the Secretary of State with a bill for $95 dollars to register his vehicle for the next year. Registering his vehicle costs Peyton about .25 cents per day.

There was more mail; another bill, this time from the Ann Arbor DDA. Peyton pays 175 dollars per month to use the DDA parking lots each work day. This works out to about 8 dollars per day.

In review, total cost $25.75

Tom wakes up each morning and walks his kids to the school down the street, he usually has five or ten minutes afterwards to spend with his wife in their new condo before he gets on the train for work. Tom only has about a 3 minute walk to the train that takes him to Ann Arbor where he transfers onto a Bus that takes him within a block of the Google Adwords building.

Tom either brings his lunch or goes somewhere to eat in Ann Arbor. Today, Tom happened to go to the Parthenon which was his favorite Greek restaurant. Tom had a big lunch but by the time the rain dropped him off about 5:50pm he was ready for dinner. Fortunately for him, his wife made lasagna.

Toms true transportation cost for the day - 12 dollars

Where did we get this number from?

Tom doesn't own a car. Since he lives in a well planned TOD he can walk or bike to anywhere he needs to go. It also allowed Tom and his wife to remodel their garage into an extra living room adding about 350 square feet to their condo.

Tom purchased a monthly pass to ride the train each weekday. The pass costs him 260 dollars per month or 10 dollars per day. When Tom transfers to the Bus in Ann Arbor his transfer is 1 dollar. Tom also pays one dollar to rider the bus back to the train station.

In review, total cost - $12

Tom also makes $50,000 per year but since his costs are lower he only works for about 30 minutes to cover the cost of his daily transportation.

This also means Tom spends $15 less per day then his friend Peyton to get from the same town to the same job.

Each year Tom has an extra $3,900 dollars for not using his car to go to work each day. This year, Tom plans to use the money for a new 42 inch TV, to remodel the guest bathroom and to start a college fund for his kid.

The point of all this is to point out the TRUE cost of transportation to you, not by inflating numbers and assigning societal impacts to the individual user. I'm not trying to convince anyone to move or change their lifestyle. I'm just pointing out how expensive transportation is and especially how much it is in our automobiles. Transportation is a part of our daily lives and our daily bills that we often take for granted.


ALL ABOARD!

Petraeus Propaganda?

It's been a few months since good ol' boy GW essentially put the fate of the USA's heightened involvement a.k.a the surge in General Petraeus' upcoming report to congress.

Well, it's "P" day and Petraeus is getting grilled and lambasted by the dem's and being kissed up to by the G.O.P.

This is my favorite quote SO FAR!

Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said:

"I am distressed by the accusations leveled by some in the media and by some members of Congress during hearings like these calling into question the integrity of our military, accusing the military of cherry-picking positive numbers to reflect a dramatic decline in sectarian violence... Some in Congress accuse you, General Petraeus, of presenting a report that is simply White House propaganda."

Perish the thought!

I'm always surprised at the right's attempt to equate anything "anti-surge" and anti-Iraq war as anti-military. I never believed the scare tactics accusations the left gave but, the more quotes I hear like this that put down any challenge to the validity of the military involvement in Iraq, the more they look like scare tactics to me.

I'm not sold on all the accusations that Bush is in Iraq to profit and its all about oil etc etc. BUT, I don't believe that he would have put as much faith in the Petraeus report if he didn't already know it supported his position. Why would he set himself up for failure by emphasizing the importance of this report months before it occurred?

But back to Ros-Lehtinen's quote. My question to her is "Are you serious?" I think that if the report comes back with anything short of; its not working, you have EXACTLY White House propaganda. Maybe propaganda is the wrong word, maybe not. Thats for you to decide.

Petraeus said that military objectives are in large measure being met. What the hell does that mean? Even if Petraeus were to say that Iraq is a failure, would we really pull out? Would we cut the surge and leave a smaller contingent? I'm guessing no, and if I'm right then it doesn't even matter what he says.

I guess thats the only other explanation for why Bush pointed to this report. He either hedged his bet and knew what was to be said, or he's been bluffing and hoping for the best.

Either way Ms. Ros-Lehtinen's quote continues to make me laugh. And the pictures GW must have of Petraeus must be worse than anything anyone has on Larry Craig.

Ruby

As I continue work on my website at home, despite the help a WYSIWYG program like Dreamweaver gives, I've come to a point where there is no hiding the fact that I need to expand my computer language proficiency. HTML seemed to have been a good starting point and it seems that having a better understanding of Javascript and AJAX and PHP is the appropriate next step. I took a little bit of a sidestep when I came across Ruby. Specifically the Ruby website here.

"This is cool stuff", I thought. I can download the ruby interpreter and I can make the computer type my name backwards and arrange numbers and do simple math. It reminded me of 1st grade where we were exposed to "basic" programming. What fun that was! We even used basic programming to control the movement of a small robot (damn those Ann Arbor school districts were ahead of the curve).

Having "passed" the mini ruby tutorials I was confident that before I try to teach myself something else, I am going to focus on Ruby. In addition, I had seen lots of Ruby on Rails books that claim to have you more or less "up and running" in minutes...whatever up and running means.

So I went ahead and got a Ruby on Rails for Dummies book. I usually try to stay away from the dummies series, mostly because thats admitting I'm a dummy. While I usually don't have a problem with that, when it comes to buying how to books at the bookstore, I do.

About a year ago my boss was amazed when she discovered that none of us "kids" new programming. Shocked that we eluded programming classes in our Planning programs. I wasn't sure at the time but I wouldn't be surprised if she was talking about punch cards...I digress.

So I started following along in my dummies book... This stuff is confusing the hell out of me! I spent hours just trying to make sure that I had everything installed properly and configuring my database ((Mysql and Mysql administrator (yes those are two separate programs) have proven to be a beasts in their own right). In addition I have taken the first steps to creating a facebook application but so far all you get when you visit that is an error message. Mind you, I'm laughing as a type this.

Anyway, just like MICHIGAN I will not be deterred, it will be a bumpy road with embarrassing losses but hopefully I'll be able to create some things I'm proud of and ultimately add some flair to an otherwise static website.

puts "goodbye"
goodbye
=> nil

"Ryan".reverse
"nayr"

Oh what fun!

Wish me luck and feed me advice!