You're kinda, sorta, basically, pretty much always on my mind. -- psacake.com

Life Lessons at School

In September of 2005, a social studies schoolteacher from Arkansas did something not to be forgotten. On the first day of school, with permission of the school superintendent, the principal, and the building supervisor, she took all of the desks out of the classroom. The kids came into first period, they walked in; there were no desks. They obviously looked around and said, "Where's our desks?"

The teacher said, "You can't have a desk until you tell me how you earn them."

They thought, "Well, maybe it's our grades."

"No," she said.

"Maybe it's our behavior."

And she told them, "No, it's not even your behavior."

And so they came and went in the first period, still no desks in the classroom. Second period, same thing. Third period. By early afternoon television news crews had gathered in the class to find out about this crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of the classroom. The last period of the day, the instructor gathered her class.

They were at this time sitting on the floor around the sides of the room. She said, "Throughout the day no one has really understood how you earn the desks that sit in this classroom ordinarily. Now I'm going to tell
you."

She went over to the door of her classroom and opened it, and as she did 27 U.S. veterans, wearing their uniforms, walked into that classroom, each one carrying a school desk. And they placed those school desks in rows, and then they stood along the wall. By the time they had finished placing the desks, those kids for the first time I think perhaps in their lives understood how they earned those desks.

Their teacher said, "You don't have to earn those desks. These guys did it for you. They put them out there for you, but it's up to you to sit here responsibly, to learn, to be good students and good citizens, because they paid a price for you to have that desk, and don't ever forget it."

[Trust but Verify]

0 Comments | Perm-a-link | 9/22/2011

Netflix Pricing Changes

[Source] NSFW!! So reposting here.

Netflix's current pricing plan: The $9.99 I pay each month which buys me unlimited streaming of their movies, plus as many DVDs as I would like each month, but only 1 DVD out at a time. They offer 2-3-4-etc DVDs at a time plans, but eh, most of the stuff on DVD that I want to watch is pretty eclectic and only comes along every so often, so so why bother.

Netflix's new pricing plan: it will cost $7.99 for unlimited streaming, plus an additional $7.99 for the 1-DVD at a time plan.

Although existing customers are grandfather in until September 1st, obviously my first reaction to this gigantic rate hike was to have an aneurysm and vomit all over the place. But being the empathetic soul that I am, tried to look at this from Netflix's point of view. What prompted such a drastic shift in their priving scheme? Well, it's a two folded problem. First, let's look at the new challenges that now face their streaming side of the house.

When netflix first started streaming, the likes of Hollywood folks such as Stephen Spielberg, Michael Bay, and James Cameron weren't entirely sure if streaming movies was just a passing fad or not. So when Netflix approached them asking to license their media, eh, it was more of an experimental gestures on Hollywood's behalf. In 2010, the cost for Netflix to license all of their streaming movies was around $180 million dollars in fees paid out to Your Favorite Hollywood Entity. But with DVD/Blu-Ray sales down, now Hollywood sees that streaming media is indeed the way of the future and with more streaming players in the market (Hulu, Amazon, Apple, Google), rights to streaming media are becoming a rather lucrative commodity. What cost Netflix $180 million in 2010, is expected to cost them $1.98 BILLION in 2012. For those of you keeping score, that's an ELEVEN fold increase in licensing costs.

Now let's look at the mail-order DVD rental side of the house -- which I just want to go on record as predicting to die off within five years. Anyway, when Netflix first opened their doors back in 1999, the cost of mailing out one movie was $0.33 each way. Now twelve years later and it's $0.44, that's a 33% increase in costs. So every time Netflix mails me a movie and I sent back to them in their pre-paid envelopes, it costs them $0.88. Where I live, the turnaround time for a movie is two days after I order it -- so if I order it on Monday afternoon, it's in my mailbox on Wednesday afternoon. Let's say I watch it that night, and mail it back on Thursday -- if I get it into a mailbox before 10am, Netflix will receive it on Friday and mail me out another movie that afternoon. Lather, rinse, repeat. Turn around time for a movie: 5 days. Number of DVDs I can get mailed out in a 30 day period: 6, although 7 isn't unrealistic if I'm quick about getting the movies back out the door. But let's use 6 DVDs per month x $0.88 per DVD (not including their purchase price) = $5.28 in postage costs per month. Subtract that $5.28 from the $9.99 I'm paying now and Netflix gets paid $4.71 to let me stream their entire movie collection.

In 2010 it costs Netflix about $0.05 to stream a high definition movie, and predictions are their licensing fees for streaming media are going to increase to eleven times what they are now, it will soon cost them $0.55 to stream a movie to your living room. Let's say you only stream 3 movies per week -- that's 12 movies per month -- equals $5.28 in postage fees + $6.60 in licensing fees = $11.88 Netflix needs to take in, just to break even. Not pay the employees, or keep the lights on, or make any profit. That's $11.88 just to break even. So if they continued their $9.99 plan, they would be losing $1.89
per month, per customer... all ten million of them. Now how long do you think Netflix would be in business if they lost almost $19 million dollars each month?

So here's how the profit from their pricing plans today, versus what they're going to and why they have to do it:

Subscription Type	Streaming cost for 12 movies	Postage cost for 6 movies	monthly subscription fee	profit per subscriber

Old All Inclusive	12 x $0.05 = $0.60	6 x $0.88 = 5.28	$9.99	$4.11
If they continued old All Inclusive	12 x $0.55 = $6.60	6 x $0.88 = $5.28	$9.99	$-1.89 LOSS

New Streaming Only	12 x $0.55 = $6.60	$0.00	$7.99	$1.39
New DVD Only	$0.00	6 x $0.88 = $5.28	$7.99	$2.71

Both Streaming and DVD	12 x $0.55 = $6.60	6 x $0.88 = $5.28	$15.98	$4.10

So if you were to sign up for both packages and fork over $15.98 to Netflix instead of the $9.99 you are now, they will actually making the same profit each month ($4.11 vs $4.10) that they are today. Netflix is not not jacking up prices to cornhole their subscribers, they're simply passing their cornholing on to us. If you want to blame someone for the price increase, blame Hollywood (receiving 82% of your subscription fee) and their $100 million dollar movie budgets and actors that command $25 million per film, or the postal service (receiving 66% of your subscription fee). But isn't Netflix's fault.

0 Comments | Perm-a-link | 7/15/2011

Do you really need that?

A thousand years ago, consulting a doctor about abdominal pains would have earned you a week in bed, covered with leeches, while a shaman sprayed chicken blood all over your torso. These days it seems to most of us that medical science has advanced a little since then.

Well, we hate to break it to you, but many of the common procedures in use today are about as useful, if not more dangerous, than that bucket of leeches from ages past.

Your Yearly Physical
say ahhhh

The yearly physical is by far the most common reason people go to the doctor. He looks, he feels, you take a deep breath, he listens. Maybe he takes some blood. Then you get out of there with another year of health in front of you. They're probably the most known and accepted staple of Western medicine, with 64 million of them performed per year.

So..what's the problem?

which one?

Can you guess who gets the yearly physical?

Routine physical examinations first caught on in the 1920s, when it was discovered that people who got yearly exams tended to live longer.

Unfortunately, this is a classic case of confusing correlation with causation. The kinds of people who like to keep up-to-date with their physical exams are the same kinds of people who focus on keeping a healthier lifestyle in general.

As it turns out, physical exams provide no real benefit if you don't have any actual symptoms of anything, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Most of the time, you'll know that there's something wrong with you long before a doctor can detect it by cupping your balls.

Still, the physical exam is the bread and butter of the medical industry. Depending on your personal level of hypochondria, you can sign up for anything from a $5,000 Executive Special to your regular $120 McCheckup. All secure a steady income for doctors, and all are almost entirely pointless.

But just because it doesn't do any good, that doesn't mean it does any harm, right?

Well, first of all, the pricier examinations will usually involve plenty of those cancer-inducing CT scans. But then let's say that they do come back showing something suspicious. This leads to more expensive and invasive tests that often show that there was nothing wrong to begin with. The human body is actually full of things that look like tumors on a scan result, but if none of them are growing tentacles and slithering around your arteries, investigating every one of them just subjects you to unnecessary scalpel-stabbing.

Then again, what if the tests come back negative? Isn't the peace of mind worth it? Again, not so much. Apparently, this lulls people into a false sense of security, and they walk away feeling totally healthy. As we've pointed out, tons of terrible diseases can't be detected until they become symptomatic. But when symptoms of an actual disease do show up, people who get physicals are less likely to get these symptoms checked out because they got a "clean bill of health".

Yet doctors keep doing them, often just to get us to shut up. They say that it's usually quicker to just run some tests than to take the time to explain why they're not necessary. Insurers, in turn, cover them only because we want them. And all these quick bucks add up to over $7 billion per year.

So.. why is healthcare so expensive?

0 Comments | Perm-a-link | 7/11/2011

How much does ice cream really cost?

Toscanini's Ice Cream in Boston has raised their prices 10% in 4 months.. the Boston Globe wanted to know why, so they dug into the supply chain.

... the true cost of an ice cream cone is no simple business calculation...

The story of this scoop of ice cream, as it moves from raw materials to finished prod uct, captures the myriad forces that are pushing food prices higher and putting pressure on beleaguered US consumers and a tentative economic recovery. Like other commodities, milk, sugar, and gasoline prices have soared because of rising demand, catastrophic weather, and political unrest.

[Boston.com]

The Weather

Weather means business. Weather only matters when it affects your livelihood. The rest of the time, weather is just conversation.

0 Comments | Perm-a-link | 6/27/2011

The Truth About The Economy

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich said he could explain the problems with the economy in less than 2 minutes, 15 seconds�and he did it (with illustrations to boot).

[MoveOn]

0 Comments | Perm-a-link | 6/16/2011

The Tax System Explained In Beer

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100...

If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this...

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing. The fifth would pay $1. The sixth would pay $3. The seventh would pay $7.. The eighth would pay $12. The ninth would pay $18. The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do.. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve ball. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20". Drinks for the ten men would now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his fair share? They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from every body's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.

So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by a higher percentage the poorer he was, to follow the principle of the tax system they had been using, and he proceeded to work out the amounts he suggested that each should now pay. And so the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% saving). The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% saving). The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% saving). The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% saving). The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% saving). The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% saving).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But, once outside the bar, the men began to compare their savings. "I only got a dollar out of the $20 saving," declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,"but he got $10!" "Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar too. It's unfair that he got ten times more benefit than me!" "That's true!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back, when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!" "Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison, "we didn't get anything at all. This new tax system exploits the poor!" The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had their beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill! And that, boys and girls, journalists and government ministers, is how our tax system works. The people who already pay the highest taxes will naturally get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas, where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

For those who understand, no explanation is needed.

For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.

What They Said:

Mike says Darn Straight! on 3/19/2011
Well put! Found some help with a CSS issue here...and now taxes explained in Beer terms, I love it! Thank You. Mike

1 Comments | Perm-a-link | 1/22/2011

Why the office is the worst place to work

0 Comments | Perm-a-link | 12/22/2010

Lesson for the day

One of the biggest challenges you're going to face in your life is how to fold a fitted sheet.

0 Comments | Perm-a-link | 12/7/2010

How Do You Pave a Road with a 31� Slope?

The turns in the racetrack at Daytona International Speedway bank at a 31� slope. Conventional road paving techniques won�t work at that angle. Here�s how it�s done:

Unlike repaving a street in your neighborhood, Daytona�s a banked surface designed to allow cars to reach speeds as high as 210 mph. This means crews have to carefully mill and grade each turn for the appropriate angle.

Once the appropriate angle is set, a large dump truck carrying asphalt transfers the crushed rock to a small buggy, which then transports the asphalt to the hydraulic crane. So far this process isn�t much different from how it�s normally done, but the next step involves a lot of engineering.

The asphalt is transferred from the crane to an ABG Titan 525 Paver, which lays it along the surface of the track. In order to achieve the angle the paver�s suspended from the track at a 31-degree angle by a Caterpillar D9 Bulldozer at the top of the track. This is followed by a Hamm DV-8 Double Steel Drum Roller, also suspended by a bulldozer. The Drum Roller uses its immense 40,000 pounds of weight to crush the material into a smooth surface. This is repeated numerous times until the surface is dense enough to support racing.

Link

0 Comments | Perm-a-link | 11/23/2010

Steve Jobs