Archive for Rant

Why are women less happy?

May 25, 2009 Reluctant Rant, Society

A recent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that women are less happy now than in the 1970′s, when a similar study was conducted. Not only did the subjective happiness of women decrease absolutely but also relative to men.

female-depressedThere are several theories as to why. Some guess that the women’s movement was unsuccessful. Others posit that men have gained more than women from women saturating the workforce, but that doesn’t really explain the absolute decrease in female happiness.

Many are overlooking a few fundamental reasons:

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21 Suggestions for Success

March 7, 2009 Reluctant Family, Inspirational, Personal, Rant, Society

Key to successA friend of mine tipped me off to these suggestions, but they are both profound and simple:

1. Marry the right person. This one decision will determine 90% of your happiness or misery.
2. Work at something you enjoy and that’s worthy of your time and talent.
3. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
4. Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know.
5. Be forgiving of yourself and others.
6. Be generous.
7. Have a grateful heart.
8. Persistence, persistence, persistence.
9. Discipline yourself to save money on even the most modest salary.
10. Treat everyone you meet like you want to be treated.
11. Commit yourself to constant improvement.
12. Commit yourself to quality.
13. Understand that happiness is not based on possessions, power or prestige, but on relationships with people you love and respect.
14. Be loyal.
15. Be honest.
16. Be a self-starter.
17. Be decisive even if it means you’ll sometimes be wrong.
18. Stop blaming others. Take responsibility for every area of your life.
19. Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life, you’ll regret the things you didn’t do more than the ones you did.
20. Take good care of those you love.
21. Don’t do anything that wouldn’t make your Mom proud.

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The Budget Balance

February 12, 2009 Reluctant Politics, Rant

Wow!  Scary.

budget deficit

(thanks Greg Mankiw)

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If only all politics could be like this

October 19, 2008 Reluctant Politics, Rant, Science, Society

Wouldn’t it be great if all politics could be this light-hearted.

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

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For the last time – it was blocked!

September 7, 2008 Reluctant Football, Rant
Does it matter that it was 15 yards further?

Does it matter that it was 15 yards further?

So what’s all the controversy?  I’m so tired of hearing the reports of the BYU vs Washington game on Saturday.  All the ESPN analysts kept talking about the “controversial” call by the refs.  In reality, the call made no difference in the outcome of the game.

The call came after Jake Locker scored what seemed to be the overtime-forcing touchdown with mere seconds left in the game.  As he stood up, he flipped the ball over his head, sending it a considerable distance into the air.  According to the rule (which is not a judgment call, but a hard and fast rule) that action is considered celebrating and is illegal.  The referees were forced to throw a flag and access a 15 yard penalty on the PAT.

On the PAT, BYU broke through the line and smothered the ball.  Take a peek at that image.  If Jorgensen hadn’t blocked it, it looks very likely someone else would have.  Does it really matter that it was 15 yards further than normal?  So it was more like a 35 yard field goal rather than a PAT kick.  That’s still a routine kick for a PAC-10 (or any NCAA) kicker.  If the kick had been missed, it would be a different story.  But it was blocked easily.  You can’t even claim that the kicker had to alter the tragectory. It really didn’t matter.

Not once did the national media mention anything about the amazing block by BYU?  The entire focus of the game was on that one call by the referees that really had no bearing on the game.

Congratulations BYU!  Well executed block.

PS.  Jorgensen was even being held on the block.  You can see it in the picture.

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Bad Patriotism

July 16, 2008 Reluctant Politics, Rant

Just a few days after my recent post on True Patriotism, I found this article from The Philadelphia Inquirer. This guy is a prime example of “Bad Patriotism.”

He claims that because America has “sinned,” we shouldn’t celebrate Independence Day.

Put the fireworks in storage.

Cancel the parade.

Tuck the soaring speeches in a drawer for another time.

This year, America doesn’t deserve to celebrate its birthday. This Fourth of July should be a day of quiet and atonement.

For we have sinned.

Wow… talk about overreaction as well as bad patriotism.  This is the negativity that The Centrist mentioned in this article.

Balance is what this country needs.  Not polarization.

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Empathy Deficit Disorder and shifting the blame

July 4, 2008 Reluctant Rant, Science, Society

Some that know me well (especially my wife) can attest to the fact that I don’t have a great deal of patience in showing empathy or sympathy (yes, there is a difference).

EmpathySo when I saw this article from CNN about EDD (Empathy Deficit Disorder), I finally realized that I can’t help it either.

I’m afflicted with a disorder.  A disease that I can’t control.  EDD is rampant among Americans, so that makes me more comfortable knowing that I’m in a large group of people who “just can’t” show empathy.  It’s not our fault, we have a disease.

The psychologist who “identified” this disorder credits it with creating most conflict in this world.  From war to divorce, it’s all because of EDD.  It destroys lives and causes political strife.

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True Patriotism

July 3, 2008 Reluctant Politics, Rant, Society

Obama's non-pinned patriotismThe Centrist recently sent me an article from Time Magazine titled “The State of Patriotism” by Peter Beinart.  The article details the differences between the conservative style of patriotism and the liberal philosophy.

Beinart did a good job of keeping to the issue and not leaning to one side or the other.  As he indicates, there is a place for both types of patriotism, but he needed to go one step further.  The true patriot is one who embodies both styles of patriotism, not one or the other.  For some reason, each side feels their style is exclusively correct and cannot include portions (or the whole) of the other.

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Go get Firefox 3!

June 17, 2008 Reluctant Computers, Internet, Rant, Technology

Get FirefoxToday will be a day of infamy fame, err… it’ll be cool.   Ok… maybe not that amazing, but it might be cool.  The Mozilla Foundation has just released the latest version of Firefox. What does version 3 give you?  It’s faster, sleeker, consumes less memory and gives more functionality.

Today is special because they want to set a new Guinness World Record for the most downloads of a software product in a 24 hour period.  It started at 10AM PDT and is still going.

If you aren’t using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer, then shame on you.

Not only is Firefox a better, more secure and faster product, it’s also open-source. Which means several things.  Firstly, it’s free!  Yay! Secondly, it’s free!  You may say that I just said that, but there are two different uses of the word free.  There’s free when speaking of price, but there is also free when speaking of speech.  Internet Explorer is free (price), but not free (speech).  Firefox, although it is developed by Mozilla, can be changed, re-written and distributed by anybody.  In fact, there are a few other projects that liked what Mozilla started with, but didn’t like the direction or a trademark and so they started their own version of Firefox (renaming it).

Although there are offshoots, Firefox reigns supreme in the browser war as the “other browser.”  Internet Explorer has had a foothold for many years, but Firefox is changing that.  And this version brings us that much closer.

So go get it.  Let freedom ring!

Get Firefox

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NASA triumph!

May 26, 2008 Reluctant Electronics, Internet, Rant, Science, Society, Technology

When Dwight D Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, in 1958, I wonder if he had any inkling of what kind of an impact that action would have on the world. Not only did the act create the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), but also DARPA (Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency).

DARPA later went on to contribute significantly to the creation of the Internet and several other technologies we use each day (like GPS), but let’s focus on what came from NASA research.  Everyone knows the many accomplishments of NASA in regards to space exploration; Apollo Missions, Moon Landing, International Space Station, etc.  But what about all the other technologies we use that have come from NASA research?

From HowStuffWorks.com comes a countdown of the top 10 daily used products that have come from NASA research.

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