Since around mid-February, the Disgruntled Investor has been sporting a full beard. Not like a Grizzly Adams beard, and nothing anywhere near as cool as the guy above, but a beard nonetheless.
I have mixed feelings on the beard, but no matter how hard I try, I can't bring myself to shave it off. It looks pretty good, and makes me look my age, rather than like a 12 year old boy, which is how I look without it. I actually grew the beard originally for that very reason; when I showed rooms to potential renters they always looked at me strangely, and usually asked: "So...you're the owner of the house??" I sensed a lack of respect and confidence in my landlording abilities, so I grew the beard. Immediately, I was able to rent out all of my rooms, and the rents started coming in on time, if not early. With the beard came the respect.
Another positive aspect of the beard is that the Disgruntled Girlfriend loves it. Can't get enough of it. I would think that kissing someone with a beard would be weird, like making out with a Sasquatch, but apparently the ladies like it. She's been a very vocal defender of the beard, which may have played a part in my continued beard-having. Most likely, she now doesn't feel like she's breaking any statutory laws by kissing me.
I keep mine pretty closely cropped, which requires a 10-15 minute "grooming session" every few days. It's not as thin and cropped as A.J. Soprano's "chin-strap" beard (which I'm not a big fan of), but there's no danger of birds nesting in it either. On those days that I'm not grooming, I just do a quick swipe of the electric razor around my cheek (to avoid the cheek-beard) and lower neck (to avoid the neck-beard), and overall that probably saves me about 5 minutes or so in the morning.
So, I'll probably keep it for a while longer, but probably not indefinitely. I spent a few months in Shanghai in the summer of 2002, and while there I grew my beard out as part of a pact with a buddy of mine (he didn't keep his side of the bargain - he claimed he was unable to grow his...). Anyway, one thing about Shanghai in the summer is it is one of the hottest and most humid places on Earth. We would play pick-up basketball games with some of the Chinese guys around the university we were staying at, and afterwards, I would furiously scratch my beard like a crack addict due to the sweat irritating my under-beard skin. Needless to say, I didn't keep that beard for too long, and I worry that Washington, DC's summer, which is not too different from Shanghai's, might cause me to do the same.
But for now, all hail the beard!
By the way, the picture above is from the World Beard and Moustache Championships. The link is for the United States WBMC team. Definitely check it out if you've got nothing to do - the gallery is one of the greatest things I've ever seen.
-Disgruntled A
1 comment:
Here's 3 of our most serious problems. Please read my solutions for them...
1.) The US Debt and how to pay it off.
2.) The dreaded Mideast war and how to end it.
3.) The failed US K-12 educational system and how to fix it.
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1.) The US Debt and how to pay it off -- A Plan to Fix the Economy
Let’s face it – our country’s economy is in shambles. Our debt rises exponentially (a whopping $10 TRILLION, over $30,000 per man, woman & child) while the government helplessly just throws money at it – money it doesn’t have. We can’t even afford to pay the INTEREST on our national debt! First Paulson and now Obama spend trillions (putting us more & more in debt) while no one proposes a really viable solution. We desperately need a solution to this horrific problem -- one that might WORK. But first, let’s look at the facts.
We're strictly a CONSUMER society. All we can DO anymore is consume -- we don't MAKE anything anymore. The hope of selling our “superior” technology to the world hasn’t materialized. Other countries now have their own biotech development, software, video games, movies and gadgets equal to anything we can create. Instead of being a supplier to the world, the rest of the world builds everything FOR us, from cars to high tech. If we keep this up, they'll have all the money in the world, and we'll be left with rusting old junk that doesn't work anymore and nothing to sell to the world. The worst part of it -- our children and grandchildren will bear the burden of this debt their whole lives because of our foolishness and shortsightedness -- we’re all doomed!
But do we HAVE to be doomed? Isn’t there SOME way to avoid all this? What CAN we do?
Well, think for a moment about something very precious that we DO have, that we can sell to the rest of the world -- LAND -- GREAT WEATHER -- LAW & ORDER and DEMOCRACY. There's all that Western USA government land, plus, if we buy it from Mexico and make it a state, we'd have the Baja peninsula -- a West Coast Florida, without the hurricanes, humidity and bugs. It’s essentially virgin territory, close to the rich US West coast cities, with convenient shipping lanes to and from Asia. One look at the map shows Baja is the West coast equivalent to Florida, and it has more in common -- geographically -- with the USA than Mexico.
One transaction, like the Louisiana Purchase (in 1803 for $23M) or buying Alaska from Russia (in 1867 for $7M), would make both countries solvent in a few short years.
The Baja peninsula would make the perfect new real estate boom for the USA. Since Mexico has an $800B debt, and the US has a $10 Trillion debt, all we have to do is buy Baja from Mexico, for, say, $1T, spread over 10 years, which would pay off Mexico's entire debt. Another $1T is NOTHING to the USA after all our other bailouts. Millionaires won't buy in Baja as long as Mexico allows the drug cartels to run havoc there and there's basically no infrastructure.
After the USA buys Baja, it's officially made our 51st state, and the US military establishes law and order there (we'd also legalize drugs to wipe out the drug cartels). Then, the newly established US Department of Baja Realty subdivides its 36 million acres into plots to sell to the highest bidders. Baja could be a “mainland Hawaii”, a brand new US state, a paradise on earth where everyone would dream of living, far from Dubai and Mideast turmoil.
An immediate advantage -- the Herculean task of building the infrastructure for the 51st state will create full employment for the US (and previously illegal Mexican) workers for decades. Obama has already proposed spending $1T on infrastructure. Let’s spend half of that money on Baja, half on the other 50 states.
The fantastic Baja coastline will attract millionaires and billionaires from all over the world. Our government should net $20T+ over a couple of decades. The only problem is making enough water for the new state, which has the greatest weather (far fewer hurricanes than Florida, plus mountains and great fishing on both coasts) but no drinkable water. To alleviate this problem, giant desalination plants (like those in Saudi Arabia and Israel) would be built up and down both Baja coasts.
The Baja boom will be the next "man on the moon" project to get the public excited again. We Americans seem to need these every so often. However, we need this program even more than going to the moon – our children’s future depends on it.
Then, after the debt is paid off, we insist congress passes an ironclad balanced budget amendment to the constitution so we never get into this mess again.
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2.) The Mideast war and how to end it -- Is Mideast Peace Possible?
Diplomats and politicians from all over the world have tried to achieve Mideast peace for over half a century, to no avail. Is such a peace even possible? What’s at the core of the problem? Is it land rights, religious bigotry, ignorant discrimination, revenge for past wars and incursions? Just what makes two semitic (once brothers) cultures so hateful towards each other? Is it too late to take an objective view of the situation and come up with some solution that would actually work, or are these two peoples doomed to live forever under the threat of attack and sudden death? Can’t SOMETHING be done?
Well, maybe there IS a solution to this seemingly unsolvable problem. Consider the Northern Ireland war between Catholics and the English. What ended that century long war so that people there could again live in peace? Well, it wasn’t diplomats or politicians – it was the MOTHERS on each side, declaring that their sons and daughters would no longer kill each other. They marched and got together over tea in their kitchens and soon learned that their supposed enemies weren’t evil or war mongers, they were just like themselves – only they’d been whipped up by the militants among them to hate & kill the “enemy”. Miraculously, once a sufficient number of mothers got to know and understand each other, they ordered their children to lay down their guns and bombs and trust the other side and live normal, peaceful lives like the rest of the civilized world. This simple idea worked -- and it might also work in Israel and Palestine, too.
Instead of mothers, I propose an extensive student exchange program -- exchanging thousands of teenagers between nations. Such programs have been done on a small scale, with some success, but never as an extensive, countrywide program. It would take thousands (perhaps tens of thousands) of each country’s best and brightest teenagers to pull this off.
Such a huge plan as this can only happen through the auspices of the United Nations. Only the U.N. could properly organize, control and monitor such a large program. It could be a 21st Century “Peace Corp”, only this would be an EXCHANGE Peace Corp, not just teenagers repairing 3rd world infrastructure and agriculture – this would be teenagers building peaceful relations between warring countries. If either country refused to participate, it would be widely shunned as the war monger, and eventually forced to comply.
Universally, youth are the hope of the future. I feel they are also the Mideast's ONLY hope for a peaceful future.
To implement such a program, the U.N. would ask every high school in both countries to select their best students who would be willing to spend 6 months to a year in the dreaded foreign country. The teenagers must be thoughtful and intelligent (not problem children) young people – each one of them the pride of their respective school and family. They’d be linked to their counterpart teen in his country with his family, go to his school, discuss religion and politics with their hosts, conduct themselves honorably, and, hopefully, come home with an understanding of how the ‘enemy’ thinks -- plus defend his own country’s positions. It wouldn’t be easy, but these exchange teenagers duty is far more important than serving in the army.
When the teenagers return home, they’d tour their home country and be extensively interviewed on TV in both countries, discussing the differences and similarities between the two cultures and attitudes. Discussion groups would be encouraged throughout both countries. Such programs would be more popular than any reality show.
There’s no shortage of peacemakers and peaceable people on both sides of the Israeli borders. Peace loving people far outnumber the Hamas and radical zionists -- they're just not organized so they can make their voices heard. Goldie Meir once said, "When they love their children more than they hate us, then there will be peace". This hatred lives on both sides of the border, and is largely the result of ignorance and long festering revenge that must be overcome. No one is without blame, no one is perfect, but no one wants all-out war, and no one wants to have their country destroyed. Every reasonable, thinking person -- on both sides -- wants peace. We just need a plan. Have you heard of ANY other feasible plans?
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3.) Our broken K-12 educational system and how to fix it
Ask any student how many teachers were exciting, inspiring, and turned them on to a lifetime of self education? Chances are, if they’re honest, they’ll say they’ve never really had such a teacher, or maybe one, if they were extremely lucky. That’s the problem with K-12 education – there are hundreds of world class, fascinating, teachers out there, but the vast majority -- millions -- of students are rarely exposed to them. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if, somehow, there was a way to bring together the few fantastic, exciting, fun teachers we're fortunate to have with the millions of students across the country needing them, in every subject and grade? Wouldn’t it be even more wonderful if, somehow, these terrific teachers could be combined with stunning video graphics and sound, like the video games our kids play an average of four hours per day? The old teaching method of sitting quietly in a classroom, listening to a teacher talk, just doesn’t work anymore. Amazingly, teaching methods haven’t changed since our great-grandparents went to school a century ago. While our kids have advanced, the teaching establishment has NOT. Thanks to TV, video games, iPods, cell phones, texting on Blackberries, our kids have developed much quicker responses and much lower boredom thresholds.
Something must be done to alleviate this generational discrepancy. Can you imagine any possible way we could, using 21st century technology, give ALL students a world-class education?
...well, here’s an idea that just might work…
Classroom Spectaculars (CS) is the name I've given to a revolutionary new concept in K-12 education.
The Problem: Today's K-12 students are thoroughly bored in class, thanks to daily exposure to the vivid action and sensational sound of today's video games & TV shows. This boredom leads to undisciplined classes which distract teachers from their teaching duties. This in turn makes it impossible to students to learn what they need to know to become useful citizens and succeed in life.
The Solution: Classroom Spectaculars (CS)
CS will start as an ingenious new reality TV show, selecting the absolute best K-12 teachers (for every grade and every subject) in the USA.
First, schools all across the country will submit one-hour videos of their favorite teachers to begin the search. Next, these videos will be reviewed by panels made up of educators and entertainers, selecting the top (most dynamic) 10 teacher candidates for each class grade and subject (about 150 categories total for the 13 years).
Next, the top teachers will compete in a network "reality" TV show (similar to American Idol, The Apprentice and Last Comic Standing) to select the absolute best teacher for each subject and class level (category). The winning teachers will have that special presence and excitement that our students need to really "get into" and learn a given subject. The TV shows will provide roughly 150 half-hour "shows" of new educational entertainment content for the TV networks (who'll gladly foot all the production costs). CS will make a reality show like never before, since competing teachers would have many more local supporters, offer VERY interesting content (since they LOVE to teach and LOVE their subjects) with an enthusiasm you'd never see in an ordinary singer, dancer or apprentice wanna-be.
Then, the winning teachers (one for every grade & every subject) will be professionally video recorded in their actual home classrooms for one entire school year. These videos will form the basis for sensational productions, living up to the name, “Classroom Spectaculars”.
Next, professional video game creators, along with graphic artists, sound and special effect creators will turn the in-class video recordings into 30 minute (per class period) DVDs, full of vibrant sound and sweeping video graphics, that teachers across the land will use to teach their classes. An accreditation panel (made from top accreditation boards across the country) will guarantee the DVDs cover ALL material required to the depth required for the best possible education.
When completed, the program material will cover all subjects for all thirteen class years. CS will provide a fully accredited K-12 education on plastic (DVD disks), as well as preserving forever the very best teachers at the peak of their teaching careers. Since the winning “star” teachers are the best of the best, they are most capable of capturing the interest of even the least motivated student. These excellent teachers are fired up to get their subjects across to the viewers, since they completely know and LOVE their subjects, having taught them for years! The result will be a fantastic, mind-blowing library of “edu-tainment” DVDs. These (Blu-Ray or HD) high density DVDs (capable of nearly a hundred hours each) will be made available for use in K-12 classrooms throughout the country and perhaps, eventually, the entire world, educating children like never before, in every subject. Our kids will finally be learning and loving it, and the teachers will become world-class celebrities! Imagine ... celebrities famous for their knowledge and spectacular teaching skills rather than their good looks or acting talent.
The half-hour videos, one for each class period, will give the home classroom teacher equal time per hour to introduce, pause the show, elicit classroom comment and answer questions. The videos won’t be a "threat" to the home teachers; rather, CS will relieve them of having to insure required material is presented, as well as relieving them of having to prepare their daily lessons.
Instead of a threat to the home teachers, CS will serve as excellent examples of the very best possible teaching techniques and material, in their own subject and grade. CS should help tremendously to alleviate the ever-worsening K-12 teacher shortage. In-class teachers will be inspired by the excellent teaching examples and by the possibility of someday becoming celebrity teachers themselves. The cost of implementing such a system will be negligible, since the TV studios will be paying all production costs, and distribution costs will be minimal compared to the billions currently thrown at our declining educational system today, with poor effect.
CS videos will be universally available for take-home use (repetitive viewing is crucial) and for family entertainment.
CS will bring top quality education to the poorest urban ghetto schools and the tiniest country schools all over the country. They will be made available to prison inmates to view (and finally get a quality education) rather than watching ordinary TV or video games. The videos are a natural for the internet and will also be shown on dedicated CS TV channels as "edu-tainment", similar to Nova, Cosmos, Discovery & the History Channel (but MUCH more exciting to watch).
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q - How much will it cost?
A - This is the best part – CS will essentially be FREE to put into all our K-12 schools! The TV networks will pay for the reality show competitions, just to get the many years of popular entertainment TV ‘content’. Since no celebrities are involved, and the teachers will be happy to participate for FREE, the only costs will be for the graphic artists, sound and special effect creators, who might be willing to contribute their talents for the good of the educational system. Even if they charge for their work, those charges could easily be paid out of the TV network profits. Using new high density DVDs (and perhaps 'Colossal' 100 TeraByte DVDs someday) makes the number of actual disks to distribute minimal. Perhaps the government or DOE will foot the production and distribution bill. Either way, it will cost much less than the billions thrown at our K-12 system today, with very little effect.
Q – Why did I patent Classroom Spectaculars?
A – Not to make money, just to keep my hand in, and make sure CS turns into the great venture I predict it will someday.
Q – What sort of time schedule will CS take?
A – This is undetermined now, but for talking purposes I suggest doing only one or two grade levels per year, starting with Kindergarten. That way, the kids in the first class will proceed at (or nearly at) the rate of CS development. They’ll be the best educated children this country has ever seen.
Q – Doesn't CS undermine local (in-class) live teachers?
A – No. K-12 classes will still need live teachers, to show the CS videos and conduct Q&A sessions in the 2nd half-hour. CS also gives local teachers first-hand examples of how to become excellent teachers themselves. Above all, teachers want order restored to their classes, and they want students to LEARN. Teachers won't have to spend so much time preparing lessons or making sure accredited material is presented -- that'll automatically be done for them, so they can spend their time answering questions and conducting review sessions at the end of the video. Home schoolers will LOVE CS.
Q – What does the NEA (Nat'l Educ Assoc) think of CS? Don't they view it as an assault on the teaching profession?
A – See answer above. The NEA knows K-12 education has serious problems, as stated above -- discipline, poor teachers, high dropout rates, uneducated graduates, all problems that CS will alleviate if not completely eliminate. It's only a matter of time before the NEA and all teachers realize the obvious advantages and inevitability of CS.
Think of this – CS will:
Get K-12 students enthused about school and lifetime learning,
Preserve videos of our absolutely best K-12 teachers at the peak of their careers,
Provide years of worthwhile "content" for the TV networks,
Give the video game industry a fantastic opportunity to improve our society,
Give underprivileged students a world-class education,
Give all K-12 teachers excellent examples of how to reach and teach their students, and
Produce a crop of high school grads that will revolutionize the world.
The USA already has the finest universities in the world. CS makes it possible for us to have the best K-12 schools, too.
by Lee Webb
[Just who the heck is Lee Webb? Well, he's a retired aerospace EE, age 73, worked 40+ years designing and solving problems on space systems of all kinds. At TRW and Ball Aerospace, they called me 'the fireman' because I was called in so often to fix projects in trouble, which I LOVED doing -- I really enjoy a challenge -- the tougher the better. I designed hundreds of space instruments, satellite systems and cameras, plus worked on the "Hubble fix" (COSTAR) back in the early '90s. I did the conceptual design for the Google Earth camera and electronic system (called EarthWatch / Worldview then) before I retired in 2000. At Hughes Aircraft, TRW Systems and Ball Aerospace, I worked on electronics for the Surveyor moon lander, the K-11 "Keyhole" spy satellite over Russia & China (subject of the book & movie "Falcon & the Snowman"), the space shuttle, ISS, the panaramic cameras on both the Mars rovers, and some yet-to-be-launched projects like Kepler, the search for Earth-like exo-planets, plus many, many more. Well, now that I'm retired, I can't seem to get problem solving out of my system. That's why I've come up with 3 solutions to 3 of the United States' (and the world's) biggest problems -- and we've sure got some doozies right now. Please hear me out and read them below. I hope you agree with me that they might work. I'd like to get your opinion of them, pro or con. Don't hesitate to tell me I'm full of baloney, or worse. I can take it.]
Broomfield, CO (303) 438-8142 (summers) and Naples, FL (239) 530-7366 (winters)
For more information (or if you'd like to help promote CS), contact: lwebb82@comcast.net
www.classroomspectaculars.com
US Copyright PAu2-938-189
US Patent Application US60/704,617
Writers Guild Registration Number: 1087421
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