Pragmatism... not Idealism

This is Nathan Daniel Riley- the nephew born this Sunday.

Don't look at this photograph if you can't handle things of a graphic nature. Some people are just sick.

hate working your butt of doing a job and getting all that bothersome money in return? Join the WSAJ News Department. Don't get too excited though because it doesn't exist yet.

I'm going to try and build a news department soon. Right now I need to figure out it's structure (Should I be over all the reporters and journalists or should I split them up into seperate departments and make certain people heads of the department?) Heck if I know, but it's a neat challenge.

Woo Haa- My sister had a boy last night. He was 8 lbs, 3 ounces. Don't know his name (when my sister sent out the e-mail he didn't have one yet). That means I now have 5 nephews and 2 nieces, and I really wish I could get out of my ICO to Philly this Friday.

If I had money, I'd be investing in this next business idea (and this one is actually ethical). Screw "made in the USA," I want goods made in Iraq. I want to wear an pair of sandals or an arabian style shirt made in Bagdhad.

My sisters would be highly prized in the Middle East. They bring forth man children at a whopping ratio of 2:1. Nathan Daniel Riley was born via c-section today, weighing in at a respectable 8lbs 1oz. Apparently he was moving down during contractions and his heart rate was dropping when my sister was gaving them so they had to go into surgery. My next sister is due in a week and a half and we don't know if it will be a boy or not so that ratio could easily change. Stay posted for future details.

Due to Cole's whining and with much reluctance, I present my Less than Ethical Business Idea #4

Studio D has been my friend this semester. With it’s soundproof padded walls and locked door, it has been something of an oasis on those nights where I really need to cram.

Of course when I study, I’m usually thinking about everything but what I need to study. The first night I spent in Studio D (otherwise known as the “Roth Hole” by fellow Rhos) I realized some things: Studio D has no intervis restrictions, Studio D has a locked door, no one can go into Studio D unless they have a key, Studio D is the one place on campus in which a couple can have complete privacy.

So here comes the obvious less than ethical business idea: start a hotel service. I could just charge an hourly rate and you can fill in the rest. If I told a couple of the frats about it, I could probably bring in about $100 of income every week easily.

Now that there's no pretense about me being a decent person anymore...

Thursday, Mach 25, 2004- A day which will live in infamy. Nos is no longer sharing in music on DC++. I think I shed a tear when I found out. Who’s kidding, I was on the floor balling my eyes out like a little girl having a temper tantrum. Neil’s computer has been my main source for good music since I had a bunch of crazy OBers pillage my Dad’s car oh so long ago. Rest in Peace Nos.

Yeah kid, I'd be scared too

The real reason monks remain celibate

Actually, I wonder if any economists have ever studied the underground economy at any great legnth. It seems a lot more interesting that labor economics or anything like that.

And a tip for all of you out there taking econ- if you ever want to make studying a lot more fun, substitute the good your teacher uses (trucks, cameras, mangoes) and throw in your own unique term (crack, tramps). For example, in international economics I found it much easier to study comparative advantage in a two good world by substituting bibles and booze for wheat and autos.

Less than ethical business idea #3- Economic consulting firm for organized crime families

If you're going to have an underground economy, you might as well have an underground economist. I think crime families could use a a person who understands the market and ho it is affected by coercive forces.

Assume the Russians have 85 percent market share of the New York crack market? No one wants to screw around with the Ruskies so no one is going to try to sell crack or any other drugs on their turf (i.e. one major barrier to trade causing an extremely inelastic demand curve). If 20k lbs of crack are supplied in NYC, a gram of crack would go for $44.64, and an ounce of crack would be worth $1,250. That would make one pound worth $20,000 (how convenient!). That equals $400 million a year of revenue.

But now let’s say the Ruskies are able to produce more crack. Since price will decrease as supply increases, it may be that an increase would cause the price of crack to decrease to the point where marginal revenue is less than cost. Let’s say they increase their supply to 21k lbs of crack. Now let’s this increase in supply causes decrease in price to $18,000 per lbs of crack. This would lead to a decrease in revenue of $22 million a year! What would the poor Russians do without underground economist extraordinaire Jon Roth telling them that they should only sell up to the point where marginal revenue equals marginal cost? They could take the extra 1k lbs of crack and sell it in Cleveland where crack only goes for $15k per lbs. and increase their total revenue by $15 million. By hiring me, I could save them at least $22 million dollars plus whatever it cost them to buy the crack and help them earn $15 million minus costs.

Imagine what a boon an economist who understands market forces would be at a crime family gathering. We could levy tariffs on those who want to sell illegal products we don’t provide in our city like hot DVDs or watches. Perhaps another family has a comparative advantage procuring those goods over my family. It would make sense for us to engage in trade. But why allow free trade that doesn’t necessarily benefit me? If they want to sell stuff on my family’s turf, I should get something, right?

Actually, the more I think about it, the more the government seems like an organized crime family. Not only do they offer protection from enemies we didn’t even know we had, people can go to them for favors that screw the rest of us over. I guess if I’m going to compromise my ethical system and join an organization that screws people over without thinking twice, I might as well work for the government. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about someone putting a hit on me since my family would be the biggest on the block.

Less than ethical business idea #2

Have you ever been at a heroin party and been confused over which bloody needle was yours? You’ll no longer have to worry over whether you accidentally picked up HIViv Ward’s diseased needle with my next less than ethical business idea. At first I was thinking of a variation of the pez dispenser thing where the head part that pulls out could be the plunger portion of the needle with the vial part in the dispenser and the needle sticking out of the bottom. I think that’s just bulky and would be too difficult to use.

Instead I think I should offer customized hypodermic needles. Imagine this: being able to shoot up with “Go Brownies” on your vial. I wonder how many ICP morons would be banging on my door if I made some vials with a screwed up clown on them? If there is one thing capitalism has people want variations on the same dang thing to differentiate themselves from others. Right now the only hypodermic needles are the same old boring ones they use in hospitals. This is a gold mine waiting to be tapped.

And yes Andrea, I know these ideas are sick.

I've had a few money making ideas floating around for a while. While they do seem promising, they tend to be a little questionable.

Less than ethical business idea #1

Pez shaped ecstasy

Think about it. Plastic zip lock bags just aren't cool. If I could get a government sponsored monopoly (patent) on making pez shaped ecstasy tablets, I would be on easy street. What if little Billy's mother decides to put away his laundry one day and finds a container of little pills. Little Billy is in deep trouble. By offering ecstasy tablets in the shape of pez, little Billy won't have to worry about his mother seeing his magic pill collection. In fact, he can take his pills with him all over the place and not have to worry about anyone suspecting anything. Ravers like kid’s toys anyhow so the pez idea should be a hit.

I'm not sure if this has been getting around on the internet much or not. In a speech paying tribute to women reformers around the world, Bush sang the praises of Fathi Jahmi, a Libyan dissident. "Earlier today, the Libyan government released Fathi Jahmi," Bush said during a White House gathering marking International Women's Week. "She's a local government official who was imprisoned in 2002 for advocating free speech and democracy."

One problem: Jahmi is a man.

She may hate the environment, but this girl knows her feng shui.

Gale Norton's job security may be about as good as your average steel workers, but she can sleep soundly now knowing that she'll always have a job with Jessica Simpson after November.

Yes, I am that stupid.

I got my general logic exam back today. I was only two points shy of an A which would have been really cool. I would have easily gotten it too if I weren't so dense.

In one portion of the test we had to read over a fallacious argument, identify what particular fallacy it contained and give an explanation. One of the arguments was: "A man gives a woman a ring when they get engaged. Jack just gave Jill a ring last night. In fact, he called her house. Therefore Jack and Jill are engaged." Ok, in retrospect the fallacy was glaringly obvious. I thought there was an equivocation on the word ring, and in fact that was the right answer. When I read over the argument, I thought that his calling her was to establish that there was a relationship. Other than that it seemed like an odd thing to throw into the argument so i just ignored it. What resulted was an answer that Trammel enjoyed so much that he had to share it with the entire class while staring at me. Trammel: "This was an equivocation on the word ring. Some didn't get the joke so i had to take off points. One student even mentioned that the word ring might be meant in two ways. In one case it could be an engagement ring and in the other it could be a little toy one could get from a bubble gum machine" The class had a good laugh about that for a while.

I've been a little lazy about the blog this semester. I've been so busy and the blog is the last thing on my mind.

A friend of mine named John Chojnicki came out last week. We went to school together from 2nd to 7th grade. After seventh grade he was basically the only good friend I had.

I think I lived at John's house every Saturday night. They told me I could eat whatever I wanted while I was there, a decision I think they came to regret. Every week I'd go over there and consume every last piece of candy I could find in their house. They actually store up their yellow and green gummy bears for me when I go home for breaks.

In fact, I stopped being just John's friend a while ago. I've gone over to their house when he wasn't there and just talked to his parents and his sister. His Dad was my first boss and when he opened up his own restaurant, he asked me to jump ship and become a prep-cook. Now I’m like the family friend.

Anyhow, John came out last week and we went out to the Outing Club cabin. That night we had probably the best conversations we've had since we've been friends (13-14 years). It's nice having a conversation with an old friend because there aren't any pretenses whatsoever. Nothing I could have said that night would have shocked him.

John loves fishing and the Allegheny River is near the cabin, and so I figured we could hike out there and fish the next morning. As we walked and walked and walked, I began to wonder if I had trekked down the wrong path. There was one awkward moment as we passed a game warden hiking the opposite direction on the same trail. Neither of us had fishing licenses. I was wearing my Indians jacket and John had his Browns sweater and Cavs hat on so I’m guessing he thought we were from Pennsylvania.

After a good long walk we got down to the river. It was pretty cold and when we finally got there it started to rain. I found a good spot to cast off and I started fishing. Apparently beavers don’t like it when you’re practically standing on their dens. This beaver popped out of the ground and started hissing at me like crazy. As he floated downstream looking at me, I could have sworn he lifted his little beaver hand and gave me the finger. His wife came by a little later and she was a bit more reasonable about it.

So we weren’t catching anything and we decided to head back. John wanted to bring his entire tackle box which weighed at least 25 pounds and I had been carrying it all day. When we started to head back he asked me if I wanted him to carry it. The thing though is that my friend weighs about 275-285 lbs. I figured he had enough to carry back so I volunteered to lug the thing back up the hill. That’s when it became apparent just how out-of-shape I am. Besides the steep incline, muddy trails, slippery rocks, cold rain, the tingling in my arm and the dull but severe pain in my chest, the hike was really nice. That wasn’t that great of a story though. I’ll try and find something more fun to talk about in the future.

forget ethics, we've got male insecurity on our hands

That Bush picture was getting on my nerves so I took it down.

Vid-blogging: regular blogging taken to the next level. I've been watching this trend for four months or so, and I have to say I'm really impressed with how it's developing. It seems like Jakob Lodwik is the main innovator in the field. Since then his friends have gone with it too. Dalas Ferdugo and Nick are some of his buddies from RIT. Justin seems to be a guy he met somehow in California through Amir from beingfamous.com. I know it sounds strange that I know all this, but such is the nature of vid blogging.

So what is it? I guess vid-blogging is just like regular blogging in that the form it takes varies greatly from person to person. Basically though it's just a collection of shots from a person's day that together could be said to have a story arch. The video are generally just chances for people to experiment with a bunch of different shots and put them all into a video with good music in the background.

If you guys want to check them out:
Blumpy.org
Vidblogs.com