I consider myself a member of Generation @, the group of people that is really focused in on the news and developments in technology, but it occurs to me that this obsession as a culture and a global generation with tech, in the sense of programming, applications and online activity, is probably not a good thing.
The world is a wide open place full of different kinds of things, and the focus of humanity on the one area of development, electronics and programming, is probably coming at the cost of developments in other areas that are more critical, like food security and sustainability, life science, genetics and mechanical advances.
It is currently a problem for us to house, feed and support structurally all of the people that populate our planet, and this is only going to worsen as time passes and the population grows.
We need another tech boom, but this one can't be online. It's got to happen in the real world.
If you like what you see, check out some other posts that I have written:
It Doesn't Matter What you Do As Long as You Keep Things In Perspective
http://www.bubblews.com/news/9603904-it-doesn039t-matter-what-you-do-as-long-as-you-keep-things-in-perspective
Supporting Small Business
http://www.bubblews.com/news/9603588-supporting-small-businesses
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
The New Economy
In the old economy, the one that most of our parents probably took part in, when you took a job you took it long term. That job was going to pay you enough for you to live in the town where you worked, you would be able to afford necessities, you could expect raises if you performed well, and you would get benefits while working and when you retired.
In the new economy, jobs are taken with the expectation that there will only be so long for you to work there, and you will probably leave within 10 years. Jobs will pay you literally as little as regulations will allow and the market will permit, and you can only expect as much in benefits as you are willing to sacrifice in salary or status.
Many people, such as myself, work but cannot actually afford necessities or the cost of living in the city that we work, so we either find a second job or make do by cutting costs or increasing income in various ways.
Even college education, the hallmark of social advancement, no longer has the same effect on lifetime income as it once did, since so much of the additional benefit is siphoned off to pay student debt.
So, the new economy is not a very happy place.
But it offers some unique upward potential, especially for those who have education, skills, training, and the passion to pursue innovative business ideas. If you can pitch it, sell your idea to investors or the big companies, or run a business successfully, you can skyrocket in popularity from one day to the next, and make it big in this new economy.
But nothing is guaranteed.
This post was originally published on Bubblews.com here
In the new economy, jobs are taken with the expectation that there will only be so long for you to work there, and you will probably leave within 10 years. Jobs will pay you literally as little as regulations will allow and the market will permit, and you can only expect as much in benefits as you are willing to sacrifice in salary or status.
Many people, such as myself, work but cannot actually afford necessities or the cost of living in the city that we work, so we either find a second job or make do by cutting costs or increasing income in various ways.
Even college education, the hallmark of social advancement, no longer has the same effect on lifetime income as it once did, since so much of the additional benefit is siphoned off to pay student debt.
So, the new economy is not a very happy place.
But it offers some unique upward potential, especially for those who have education, skills, training, and the passion to pursue innovative business ideas. If you can pitch it, sell your idea to investors or the big companies, or run a business successfully, you can skyrocket in popularity from one day to the next, and make it big in this new economy.
But nothing is guaranteed.
This post was originally published on Bubblews.com here
Sunday, November 23, 2014
New Yorkers Deal with A Hotel full of Homeless People
I was rolling on the floor laughing when I heard about this one.
Apparently the chill of the fall in 2014 was so severe that the City of New York ran out of capacity in its conventional shelters for the homeless, and as an emergency measure they reserved 100 rooms at a hotel in Jamaica, Queens, ostensibly for a "government group"
In fact, the people that the city of New York intended to occupy the rooms were a large number of homeless people, and while the hotel staff did not report any disruptions in normal hotel activity over the course of their 10 day stay, the management also confirmed that there would be no more allowances for this kind of thing.
In order to preserve their professional image they will be attempting to prevent this from happening again.
To read more about this, check out the following:
http://mashable.com/2014/11/20/hotel-for-homeless/
Apparently the chill of the fall in 2014 was so severe that the City of New York ran out of capacity in its conventional shelters for the homeless, and as an emergency measure they reserved 100 rooms at a hotel in Jamaica, Queens, ostensibly for a "government group"
In fact, the people that the city of New York intended to occupy the rooms were a large number of homeless people, and while the hotel staff did not report any disruptions in normal hotel activity over the course of their 10 day stay, the management also confirmed that there would be no more allowances for this kind of thing.
In order to preserve their professional image they will be attempting to prevent this from happening again.
To read more about this, check out the following:
http://mashable.com/2014/11/20/hotel-for-homeless/
One of my favorite sites on the web is gutenberg.org, and I recently found out about an opportunity that they have to do volunteer proofreading of their published works.
In essence, you spend your time reviewing published text, and if you note any errors you can report them to the Gutenberg Project.
But the interesting thing about this is, the Gutenberg Project is the sole activity for a 501c3 nonprofit registered in one of the states of the United States, and as a result one could claim this volunteer time as a charitable donation.
I went to college for a long time, and the market rate for my time is about 50 dollars per hour.
So if I was able to deduct the value of my time that I spend on "reviewing text" for the gutenberg project every week, about 10 hours weekly if I count all the time I spend reading, that adds up to 2000 dollars a month, every month, or 24000 dollars per annum of deductible income as a charitable donation.
Sure, everyone's tax situation is different, but this is easy money if you ask me.
It might not be so relevant to people who don't read, or have lower income, but for me it's a home run.
In essence, you spend your time reviewing published text, and if you note any errors you can report them to the Gutenberg Project.
But the interesting thing about this is, the Gutenberg Project is the sole activity for a 501c3 nonprofit registered in one of the states of the United States, and as a result one could claim this volunteer time as a charitable donation.
I went to college for a long time, and the market rate for my time is about 50 dollars per hour.
So if I was able to deduct the value of my time that I spend on "reviewing text" for the gutenberg project every week, about 10 hours weekly if I count all the time I spend reading, that adds up to 2000 dollars a month, every month, or 24000 dollars per annum of deductible income as a charitable donation.
Sure, everyone's tax situation is different, but this is easy money if you ask me.
It might not be so relevant to people who don't read, or have lower income, but for me it's a home run.
Friday, November 21, 2014
Inventions
This might sound crazy, but for the longest period of human history there were no inventions at all.
The generations of people used the same tools, weapons, and techniques for over 100,000 years, and then when people became more intelligent and creative, we began the rat race of development.
Looking at the fossil and paleontological records, this holds out to be true.
There are fossil pieces that show anatomically modern humans existed for many millennia, and the exact same types of artifacts appear in the same geological layers as the fossils do, up to a certain point between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago.
At that point in the fossil record, the bones remain the same, but the artifacts change. They grow suddenly more complex, and begin to be quite different from region to region, and more complex and varied as time passes.
In the fossil record, things were the same, but in the paleontological record, everything changed. We had discovered the key to true humanity: invention.
The generations of people used the same tools, weapons, and techniques for over 100,000 years, and then when people became more intelligent and creative, we began the rat race of development.
Looking at the fossil and paleontological records, this holds out to be true.
There are fossil pieces that show anatomically modern humans existed for many millennia, and the exact same types of artifacts appear in the same geological layers as the fossils do, up to a certain point between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago.
At that point in the fossil record, the bones remain the same, but the artifacts change. They grow suddenly more complex, and begin to be quite different from region to region, and more complex and varied as time passes.
In the fossil record, things were the same, but in the paleontological record, everything changed. We had discovered the key to true humanity: invention.
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Hunting Season is Here Again
I am not a big-time hunter. I am a consumer of meat, however, and as an inhabitant of a relatively healthy environment encounter an overabundance of deer.
I see nothing wrong with eating hunted meat; it is completely acceptable to me religiously, is free, and I can usually get some without actually hunting just by knowing and being nice to people that do hunt.
I like knowing where the animals that I am eating were killed or caught, and I know just how the meat was processed. My friends actually use local butcher shops to cut and pack their catch every year, and I have been on a list of people to call for quite some time.
This year, I've gotten about 20 pounds of venison for nothing. That is a great deal, when beef is 3 dollars or more per pound, and good quality meat too.
For hunters, at least in the Northeast portion of the United States, hunting is strictly regulated. The season for taking animals can be as short as a couple of weekends in a month, or just a couple months out of the year, but the number of registrations for licenses to hunt and take animals is really astronomical.
I see nothing wrong with eating hunted meat; it is completely acceptable to me religiously, is free, and I can usually get some without actually hunting just by knowing and being nice to people that do hunt.
I like knowing where the animals that I am eating were killed or caught, and I know just how the meat was processed. My friends actually use local butcher shops to cut and pack their catch every year, and I have been on a list of people to call for quite some time.
This year, I've gotten about 20 pounds of venison for nothing. That is a great deal, when beef is 3 dollars or more per pound, and good quality meat too.
For hunters, at least in the Northeast portion of the United States, hunting is strictly regulated. The season for taking animals can be as short as a couple of weekends in a month, or just a couple months out of the year, but the number of registrations for licenses to hunt and take animals is really astronomical.
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Saving Money on Groceries
I spend a good amount of time going over people's finances in my free time, and I encounter a lot of situations where people make good money, but they just don't know where it all goes.
And it is often the case that people are spending money on food that they don't really like, so they don't eat it, and then they end up wasting it.
I think that there are really three ways to make sure that you are getting the most for your money when shopping for food.
First, you need to be sure that you are buying foods that you actually like and will eat. No matter how good of a deal you get, 100% of the food that you won't be eating is going to waste.
Next, look into foods that are in and of themselves not expensive foods.
I buy a lot of dried and frozen goods, and usually these are quite cheap compared to fresh produce. I also make good use of ingredients, as opposed to fully prepared or convenience foods, to cut down on costs. I usually avoid things that are temporarily elevated in price, or look at trends to minimize my cost by buying such an item in bulk or in exchange for an in-kind payment.
I can often get venison from hunters in exchange for help on projects, for example.
Finally, look for good prices on the food that you want, and don't feel obligated to get everything at one place.
So, if you can follow all of that advice, you can end up with a pantry stocked with food you like, at prices you can live with.
Of course, you could also attempt to secure an independent food supply by producing your own goods, but that is another subject entirely.
I recently wrote about this on bubblews.com.
And it is often the case that people are spending money on food that they don't really like, so they don't eat it, and then they end up wasting it.
I think that there are really three ways to make sure that you are getting the most for your money when shopping for food.
First, you need to be sure that you are buying foods that you actually like and will eat. No matter how good of a deal you get, 100% of the food that you won't be eating is going to waste.
Next, look into foods that are in and of themselves not expensive foods.
I buy a lot of dried and frozen goods, and usually these are quite cheap compared to fresh produce. I also make good use of ingredients, as opposed to fully prepared or convenience foods, to cut down on costs. I usually avoid things that are temporarily elevated in price, or look at trends to minimize my cost by buying such an item in bulk or in exchange for an in-kind payment.
I can often get venison from hunters in exchange for help on projects, for example.
Finally, look for good prices on the food that you want, and don't feel obligated to get everything at one place.
So, if you can follow all of that advice, you can end up with a pantry stocked with food you like, at prices you can live with.
Of course, you could also attempt to secure an independent food supply by producing your own goods, but that is another subject entirely.
I recently wrote about this on bubblews.com.
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