News Story Attention Span

No matter what the event is, within a few weeks most people forget that it ever occurred.  Remember “superstorm” Sandy?  That was two weeks ago, so everything is all cleaned up now, right?  In this case, people were so flooded with information about the storm that after the wave of interesting pictures ended, they ceased to care.  Similarly with the tsunami in Japan and the earthquake in Haiti (oh yeah, I remember that one now), after a few weeks, people got bored and moved on.  I’m not saying we should continue to harp on issues that are old, but the speed at which people fall in love with a certain cause then forget about it a week later amazes me.

I have provided a graph to illustrate:

Why Communism Doesn’t Work – A Loaf of Bread

Communism is a flawed system and will never work on a large scale.  The reason is easily illustrated through a simple loaf of bread.

Despite it’s symbolic nature in human culture and history, a loaf of bread is also physical proof of why communism will not work.  If you have ever had to share a loaf of bread with other people, presumably over a span of time, you know how irritating the end pieces are.  Someone will skip the first slice in the loaf, taking the inner slices to construct their sandwich of choice.  This system works well, until the Russian Roulette of sandwich preparation unfortunately lands you with the two end pieces.  Fury, disgust, disappointment, and guilt are all natural reactions to this situation.  Even if you decide to be the good person and eat the sandwich with two end pieces, the cycle will continue with the next loaf.  Eventually, the harmonious system of bread-sharing will fall apart, leaving a stalemate over the bread, a waste of food, or separate loaves of bread for each person, so they must face the consequences of their own end-piece-avoiding desires.

It’s easy to avoid the bread end-pieces in life for a short amount of time, but eventually they will catch up with you, and you won’t have anyone to eat them for you.

MAX POWER!

I’m not sure if it’s just me, but whenever I have a slider/dial control of something, I refuse to put it on maximum.  Whether it’s the A/C in the car, volume on the TV or computer, or speed on a snowblower, I choose the option right below max.  I imagine a scene from some comic book or children’s TV show where a mad scientist dramatically pulls a lever on a machine with lightning shooting out.  I think I subconsciously feel that the machine is going to break or sustain long term damage when on the maximum setting, even though most of the time this isn’t true.  Whenever I see someone else driving who turns the air on high, music on loud, and accelerates very fast, I cringe.  I don’t think it’s as much about sympathy for the machines as it is a repellence for the personality type.

Driving at Night

One time I had to drive somewhere very late at night.  Everything was completely dark and silent, and there weren’t any cars on the road.  Driving on the quiet street, I approached a four-way-stop intersection.

I could go right through.  No one would notice.  No one would be harmed.  It’s not even that big of a deal.  I could clean it all up by the morning.  I wouldn’t even have to tell them.  There would be no evidence.  Nothing bad could happen on the first time.  It’s not even a risk!  Anyone would do it!  No one would ever know.

Driving along the black, empty, road, I slowed down to a stop.

2012 Election and Poll Prediction

[This is the last political post for a while, I promise.]

I would rather not post my reactions to the election, since I feel like everyone else has covered every possible reaction through their facebook posts of celebration, angst, or desire to move to another country.

I think I would much rather discuss my prediction and the nature of predictions in general.  Elections are not like sporting events, where any team can make a comeback, or where an underdog can pull an upset.  For many months leading up to an election, polls show the trends of opinions.  By taking a small sample size, they can accurately extrapolate their data to the rest of the people in a region, and by organizing all of their statistics, they can predict an election.

Looking back on my election prediction map, I feel kind of dumb.  I accounted for too much variability in swing states.  The election was like a count of how many times a penny would land on heads or tails when flipped.  The polls took the metaphorical penny, and flipped it thousands of times.  They would come to the conclusion that the penny when flipped 118 million times would result in equal amounts of heads and tails.  My election prediction is like saying that when you flip a penny tons of times, it will land more on heads than tails!

If you make a prediction for the Super Bowl or make a NCAA bracket, at least you have a chance of being right if you bet on the underdog.

Election Prediction

I have officially made my prediction for the 2012 Presidential Election, which takes place tomorrow (Tuesday the 6th).  If you disagree with my picks and want to make your own, click here.

Romney 275 – Obama 263

For some of the more influential swing states I have taken relatively substantial risks, and not all my choices match up with the latest polls.  Anyone can choose red or blue based on what polls lean one way or another.  It’s not worth making a prediction if it isn’t interesting or different in some way.

Daylight Savings Time

This upcoming Saturday night (technically Sunday morning) the clocks are set back an hour.  I understand its importance for environmental and fiscal reasons, but it makes me think of the relativity of time.  No, I’m not going to talk about Einstein’s theories today, although I’ll rant about why I think they aren’t true later.  I’d prefer just to talk about how we keep time.

Time exists and passes whether we decide to measure it or not.  If you have ever watched a really good movie or played a fun video game, time seems to pass much quicker.  On the other hand, if you have ever watched C-Span, you know that time can go slow as well.  For any event to be coordinated between multiple people, they must share the same sense of when something is occurring.  A standard and universal time is needed for the maximum efficiency of collaboration and completing tasks.  If we were not to measure time accurately, different people, based on the activities at hand, would perceive time to pass at varying rates.

I just think it’s odd how we can collectively agree to change what time it is.  What if I say I don’t want to follow daylight savings time?  What if I don’t think the government has any right to tell me what time it is or isn’t?  Where in the Constitution does it allocate the power to alter time?

I don’t think I’m actually getting anywhere with this post, but I might have just started a new political movement of anarchists against the government mandate of time.  As I think about it more, this definitely needs to be a thing.