A Series of Tubes

I do not have direct proof of the copied idea but I will just point the following out:

1) I have a blog

2) said blog is awesome

3) anyone can read my blog, including people at the University of California

4) The UC started its own blog.

The fairly obvious step at about 3.5 is that the University of California decided to copy my genius idea of starting a blog after seeing how awesome mine was.  Of course the UC has a lot to learn about writing a blog.  First, they need to open up their blog to comments.  Second, they need to post more pictures and videos (the whole blog looks repetitive and boring).  Lastly, they need to post that they are going to cut UC salaries fairly and proportional to the total compensation package they receive (including the cost of any car allowance and or houses) and not just salaries.  As a side note I find it slightly hilarious that UC president Mark Yudoff’s car money is called an allowance, the same thing little kids get each week to learn about money… “Now be a good boy UC president and enjoy your car allowance.  Play nice with the other kids and don’t mess up California’s higher education system”.

I’m going on a slight diversion about the UC budget before I get back to talking about the UC blog.  The proposed salary reductions for staff at the UC following the California budget crisis are as follows:

Looks like a fair deal right?  The people making the most money take the biggest hit.  I’m surprised the higher ups at the UC would approve something that would hit them the hardest, since they are most likely to land in that 7th salary band.  What is that asterisk doing up there at the top of the table?  It sort of hovers like the home run record of a steroid injected baseball player.  Let’s read what that refers to:

The UC system carved out the lowest cuts for senior managers, less of a cut than the lowest paid employees at the UC.  All of the sudden this very fair system is a big middle finder to everyone that is not a senior manager.  I became a fountain of 4 letter words when I found that little nugget of information.  Anyhow, end of diversion and now back to the new UC blog.

Read more

I decided to read the motorcycle diaries, although I haven’t seen the movie yet, which is about Che Guevara’s trip through South America.  Perhaps something was lost in translation, but Che’s writing style sucked.  It read like a 3rd grader’s what I did over the summer report (first I did this, then I did this then this…).  It was a laundry list of events with the focus on what happened and not a lot of analysis of what Che was thinking or of the events themselves.  I guess it reads like a diary and not as much like a planned book.  There are, however, a few Gems in the book, most of them at the end.

Che the Racist:

Read more

Found this pretty hilarious:

Some people have requested that I get a facebook account.  For a better understanding of the phenomenon that is facebook please see:

As you might have guessed from my less than enthusiastic endorsement of facebook placing it between Stalking and Narcissism, I am still not a facebook member.

So in the radiolab post I mentioned the story of Isaac and Abraham and pointed out that it is in fact not a moral action.This video really highlights that point:

Radiolab used to be my favorite podcast.  If you have never heard Radiolab, then here is their own description of what their show is about:

“Radiolab believes your ears are a portal to another world. Where sound illuminates ideas, and the boundaries blur between science, philosophy, and human experience. Big questions are investigated, tinkered with, and encouraged to grow. Bring your curiosity, and we’ll feed it with possibility.”

With that information floating in your head I’m going to move on to my list.  As someone who does not make a ton of money, I personally don’t donate a lot of money.  I don’t have a lot of material needs or wants, so my relative lack of funds does not particularly bother me.  When my birthday or when Christmas rolls around, I’m usually at a loss as to what thingamajig I want.  When constructing a list of desired presents, I usually end up filling it with places I would like money to be donated to instead of stuff I would like to have and then trow away a year later.  Topping the list is usually a donation to Radiolab.  Unfortunately my list will have to remove Radiolab.  But Why? Read more