Happy 35th!

It's the birthday for an icon of retailing.

The Barcode.

The design was straightforward — 59 black and white bars. And the inventors’ objectives were simple enough, too — to speed up the grocery checkout line and give supermarkets a new tool to track their stock.

But the bar code has become much more than that since it was first used to read the price on a 10-pack of Juicy Fruit gum (67 cents) on the morning of June 26, 1974.

Today, bar codes are scanned more than 10 billion times a day around the world.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/31566093/

Michael Jackson's Death on Wikipedia

People's views differ on Wikipedia.

Following the events yesterday involving Michael Jackson's death I was extremely impressed with the diligence that goes into a Wikipedia update.

First the Michael Jackson page was locked during the period where the results of his death were unconfirmed.

Then all updates must be proposed on a "discussion" page where the Wikipedia community debates the authenticity of the claims and decides when to update the main page with the breaking news.

I looked through the records and at times it blew me away how passionate these people are. These are actual comments from Wikipedia users Thursday afternoon as the news was beginning to break...

"BBC News, Reuters and AP are NOT (at present) reporting the death of Michael Jackson at present, they are simply stating that TMZ is reporting his death. Please can we calm down, Wikipedia is an important website and we really don't need to precipitate further confusion with premature reports here."

"Things are still unclear.. CNN is reporting that his is still alive. We should wait for an official statement from the Jackson Family."

"Several reports on Google News, all based on the TMZ story. It can wait until a more reliable source reports it."

"Honestly, I would wait till a press release comes out. What's the LA Times and AP's source, I wonder. We should hold out until we have a confirmed reputable source, and a press release would probably be best."

"Cool down people, Wikipedia is an Encyclopedia, not a real-time portrait of the world. Let the facts be discernible, and then people will edit the article accordingly"

"I'd prefer truth over speed to be honest"

-"This page needs to be unlocked to the extent that you will allow his death to be noted."
-"Hell No"

"Just wanted to throw a word of support to the admins: this page would become the messiest battleground of the decade if it weren't protected."

"It's official: CNN:http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/06/25/michael.jackson/index.html"

I really am not exaggerating when I saw that this back and forth dialogue between literally hundreds of Wikipedia users went on for more than 2 hour before the site administrators felt comfortable enough to post some of the information.

I found out later that certain Michael Jackson pages were locked for more than 5 hours to prevent edits from the thousands of users that swarmed the site.

Some amazing stuff and I must say I am more impressed with Wikipedia then I ever was before. There will always be issues with this style of reporting and documenting but the users take real pride in the site's accuracy and make ever effort to live up to that standard.

Medical Bills and Bankruptcy

In case you didn't believe Health Care is one of, if not the most, pressing problem facing our country...

From CNBC -

"Medical bills are involved in more than 60 percent of U.S. personal bankruptcies, an increase of 50 percent in just six years, U.S. researchers reported Thursday."

"More than 75 percent of these bankrupt families had health insurance but still were overwhelmed by their medical debts, the team at Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School and Ohio University reported in the American Journal of Medicine."

Full Article: http://www.cnbc.com/id/31099365

U.S. Open

Lucas Glover won the US Open golf tournament Monday and accepted the trophy with dignity, class, and very little enthusiasm.

Rick Reilly at ESPN on some of the things we would have seen if golf was more like other sports...

"If I won a U.S. Freaking Open, I'd go absolutely electroshock, three-alarm, bat-guano nuts!"

"I'd climb up the TV tower and swan dive into the crowd!"

"I'd pick up the flagstick and fire it like a Tommy gun at the crowd."

"I'd make my caddie give me a piggyback ride and I'd whip him like a jockey on a horse."

"I'd lay my bag on the ground, straddle it and then paddle with my putter."

"I'd get a stepladder out and cut down the flag, like they do in basketball. I'd get up there with a pair of scissors, cut one little piece off, climb back down, pretend I was handing the scissors to the guy behind me in line -- which was just me again -- and climb back up, until the thing was off."

"I'd take my 3-iron out and have my caddie kneel before me and I'd knight him like I was the queen."

From: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=reilly_rick&id=4281277

Captcha

Have you ever bought tickets to an event online and tried to decipher the word or words that are distorted in order to proceed the the billing page? Ever wonder if there is a name for that jumble of letters?

It's called a CAPTCHA.

Because other computers are unable to solve the CAPTCHA, any user entering a correct solution is presumed to be human. The term "CAPTCHA" was coined in 2000.

It is a contrived acronym for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart."

Track Team Title

The story of how tiny Rochelle High School — enrollment: 59 — won the Texas Class A girls team track championship over the weekend sounds too good to be true. Only it might be better than that.

For one thing, it was the Hornets' second straight title.

For another, the only member of the team both years was Bonnie Richardson.

Richardson won two of five individual events, finished second and third in two others and fourth in the 100 meters. Never mind that she couldn't compete in the relays, which offer double the points per event, or that the track Richardson trains on is little more than a rutted dirt path.

She single-handedly beat 56 schools, again.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g2sHqcQRlm-NLmpzIFIYA92Qid9AD98N0VP80

No Recession in Parking

This could fall into the "You have got to be kidding me" category...

An unidentified buyer last week paid $300,000 for a private parking space in Boston's Back Bay, making it the most expensive parking space in Boston, according to Listing Information Network, which tracks the city's real estate market.

Last year, parking spaces in the Back Bay and Beacon Hill fetched an average selling price of $134,000.

The $300,000 parking spot was at 48 Commonwealth, a multi-unit building prominently located on the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Berkeley Street.

Believe it or not, the spot is outdoors and uncovered!

From:http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/06/11/300000_price_sets_record___for_parking/?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed2

500 Straight

Last night marked the 500th straight sellout for the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.

Back in September 2008, the Sox sold out Fenway Park for the 456th consecutive game, setting a new MLB record for most consecutive sellouts at any venue. The previous record had been set by the Cleveland Indians.

Since 2003, the Red Sox boast a home record of 301-160 which is a winning percentage of .653, the highest in baseball over the past six seasons.

The Future of Video Games = No Controllers??

Microsoft has introduced 'Project Natal', their first attempt at video games that do not require a controller.

Interesting stuff....

Global Warming

A new study from the Global Humanitarian Forum, estimates that climate change kills about 315,000 people a year through hunger, sickness, and weather disasters, and the annual death toll is expected to rise to half a million by 2030.

"Climate change is the greatest emerging humanitarian challenge of our time, causing suffering to hundreds of millions of people worldwide," Kofi Annan, former UN secretary-general and Global Humanitarian Forum president, said in a statement.

The report says poor and developing countries bear more than nine-tenths of the human and economic burden of climate change, while the 50 poorest countries contribute less than 1 percent of the carbon emissions that are heating up the planet.

From: http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/articles/2009/05/29/report_estimates_deaths_by_warming/

Technological Regression

Technological progress is usually considered a given.

However, there is at least one technology in America that is worse now than it was in the early 20th century: the train.

In 1942 you could board a train at New York's Grand Central Station at 11:15 p.m., arriving at Montreal's Windsor Station at 8:25 a.m., a little more than nine hours later.

To make that journey today requires a nearly 12-hour ride.

The trip from Chicago to Minneapolis in the 1950s took about four and a half hours; today, the journey is more than eight hours.

Going from Brattleboro, Vt., to New York City took less than five hours in 1938; today, that trip takes six hours—if the train is on time, which it isn't, nearly 75 percent of the time.

From: http://www.slate.com/id/2218394

Norman Brinker

Norman Brinker died on Tuesday and although it is unlikely that you knew who he was, it is also unlikely that he didn't have an impact on your life.

Mr. Brinker is credited with creating "chain dinning", the niche industry that sits between fast food and higher priced gourmet segments of the restaurant field.

In addition and maybe his greatest impact on the dinning industry, was the fact that he invented the salad bar concept.

His company, Brinker International, is the parent company of Chili's, On the Border Mexican Grill, and Macaroni Grill.

During his life he also played vital roles in the operation of Jack in the Box, Steak and Ale, Bennigan's, and Burger King.

Mr. Brinker was 78.

Taxing Sin

Nick Gillespie is the editor in chief of Reason magazine. In late May he wrote an article attempting to make the case that turning America into a Sin City would help President Obama pay for "his ambitious plans to overhaul health care, invest in green energy, and create gee-whiz trains that whisk through towns at speeds over 100 miles an hour."

His basic premise is that "all of these vices, involving billions of dollars and consenting adults, already take place. They just take place beyond the taxman's reach."

It is a very interesting article and well worth the read: Paying With Our Sin

Best and Worst Drivers

Here are the results from the National Drivers Test for 2009:

Best Drivers

1- IDAHO
2- WISCONSIN
3- MONTANA
4- KANSAS
5- SOUTH DAKOTA
6- NEBRASKA
7- UTAH
8- WYOMING
9- IOWA
10- OREGON


Worst Drivers

41- MARYLAND
42- CONNECTICUT
43- FLORIDA
44- MASSACHUSETTS
45- RHODE ISLAND
46- GEORGIA
47- CALIFORNIA
48- HAWAII
49- NEW JERSEY
50- NEW YORK

From: http://autos.yahoo.com/articles/autos_content_landing_pages/993/where-the-worst-drivers-live/

Golf Trivia

Most people know that a birdie is one under par.

Most people know that an eagle is two under par.

Any idea what three or four under par is called....


Albatross
Three-under-par (-3); often called a double eagle. These are extremely rare, and occur most commonly on par-fives with a strong drive and a holed approach shot. Between 1970 and 2003, 84 such shots (an average of fewer than three per year) were recorded on the PGA Tour.


Condor
Four-under par (-4); a hole-in-one on a par 5. It has only been recorded 4 times in history and never during a professional tournament.

What to do with a Billion?

Peter Peterson was Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations until retiring on June 30, 2007. He is the Senior Chairman of the private equity firm, the Blackstone Group. In 2008, he was ranked 149th on the "Forbes 400 Richest Americans" with a net worth of $2.8 Billion.

At the end of May he wrote an article for Newsweek entitled "Why I'm giving away $1 billion".

*******

From: http://www.newsweek.com/id/200075/?gt1=43002

For the first time in my memory, the majority of the American people join me in believing that, on our current course, our children will not do as well as we have. For years, I have been saying that the American government, and America itself, has to change its spending and borrowing policies: the tens of trillions of dollars in unfunded entitlements and promises, the dangerous dependence on foreign capital, our pitiful level of savings, the metastasizing health-care costs, our energy gluttony.

Underlying these challenges is our broken political system. Our representatives, unlike our Founding Fathers, see politics as a career. As a result, they are focused not on the next generation, but on the next election.

The moment is long overdue for us to become moral and worthy ancestors. So I decided to set up a different kind of foundation, one that would focus on America's key fiscal-sustainability challenges. The fact is, for most of these challenges, there are workable solutions. Our problem is not a lack of such options. It is a lack of will to do something about them.

Ultimately, I decided to commit $1 billion to the Peter G. Peterson foundation—the vast majority of my net proceeds from Blackstone. Why so much? Kurt Vonnegut once told a story about seeing Joseph Heller at a wealthy hedge-fund manager's party at a beach house in the Hamptons. Casting his eye around the luxurious setting, Vonnegut said, "Joe, doesn't it bother you that this guy makes more in a day than you ever made from Catch-22?" "No, not really," Heller said. "I have something that he doesn't have: I know the meaning of enough." I have far more than enough.

Personal Trainer

Man's best friend is also man's best trainer:

Karma

The Champions League is a European Soccer Championship that is one of the most popular sporting events in the world. The championship game was held last week and there were many interesting sub-plots. Here is one of the best....

********

From Rick Reilly at ESPN:

Manchester United -- the team with the giant AIG across its jerseys -- got beat by FC Barcelona, the team with the UNICEF logo across its, 2-0 in the Champions League Finals.

How cool is that? Barcelona does it all backwards.

It blew off a jersey sponsorship deal worth tens of millions of dollars, like the best teams sign, and instead decided to donate $2 million a year to UNICEF for the privilege of wearing its name.

And Barcelona will do it for two more seasons. Manchester United, meanwhile, is wearing the logo of one of the world's greediest -- and most ruinous -- corporations in history.

Karma.

********

UNICEF is the United Nations Children's Fund, whose programs emphasize developing community-level services to promote the health and well-being of children. UNICEF was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965.

A truly amazing organization and a truly amazing sub-plot to a sporting event.

General Motors

General Motors was removed for the Dow Jones Industrial Average yesterday.

It will be replaced in the index by CISCO Systems.

There was a good deal of discussion in the news as to what company should replace GM in the DOW index.

The most interesting opinion came from the Los Angeles Times:

"How about adding the U.S. government? They make cars, money, provide mortgages, invest in securities, provide rail transportation, health insurance. You know, a real all-around company."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2009/05/the-dow-jones-industrial-average-may-have-an-opening-soon-dow-jones-co-is-signaling-that-its-ready-to-boot-general-moto.html

Quote of the Day

Elizabeth Warren is a Harvard law professor who has lectured and written extensively on the collapse of the middle class in America. Her main premise revolves around the rising cost of health care, housing, and education.

The most startling quote from her recent lecture at UC Berkley was:

"Twice as many people believe that the landing on the moon was faked, than believe you can make it in America without a college diploma."