Gray Watson's Blog -- May 2007

Blogging is a useful way for me to record my thoughts and digital travels every so often. Hope you enjoy my digital stream of consciousness.

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May 24, 2007

More terrible news about how CEO pay is growing faster than 2nd or 3rd tier executives. I've always hated the levels of executive compensation. This pay race between the public companies is completely out of control. 10-20 times the base workers salary is typical in Europe while in the US it often 10 times more. Concentrating that much wealth in so few people is not healthy for our economy or society. I was watching a Discovery program last night about the mega-yachts being built these days. That the market for these 10 to 100 million dollar play things has sprung out of nowhere in the last decade. I blame the boards for the incestual relationship with the top executives and the unreasonable need to pay these guys a ton that will allow them to retire immediately. Plus you have all of the loan forgiveness and other mechanisms for paying CEOs that are "off the books".
As executive pay has surged in most American companies, attention has focused on the growing gap between the earnings of top executives and the average wage of workers in cubicles or on the shop floor. Little noticed, though, is how much the gap has also widened between the summit and the next few echelons down.
"It's executive pay chasing executive pay" said Mark Van Clieaf, managing director of MVC Associates International, a consulting firm that develops compensation plans. "But nobody looked at hte issue of internal pay equity, so the disparity just kept getting bigger".
Cool story about how a old decaying steel mill site near Buffalo has been replaced by eight new wind turbines. The turbines wil harness the winds off Lake Erie and are expected to produce 56 gigawatt hours of electricity a year. They used about $300,000 in state and federal assistance to research wind patterns and evaluate the environmental impact.
Christine Real de Azua, of the American Wind Energy Association, said Steel Winds, as this wind farm is known, is the largest to rise in a city, and according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, it is the first to rise on land overseen by New Yorkies.)
The turbines, owned jointly by BQ Energy of Pawling, N.Y., and UPC Wind of Newton, Mass., are able to produce a total of 56,000 megawatt-hours of electricity a year, enough to provide power to 7,000 homes, said the project manager, Mark Mitskovski. The companies involved in the project plan to sell the energy to individual customers or utilities.
Just so that we don't forget, the Democrats are not the bastion of ethical correctness since they are struggling to make improvements in House ethics rules. Just disgusting. It seems to be that "being right" is more important the doing the right thing for the country. No shock of course -- just disappointment that the Dems are living up to my low expectations. Then again, the House has just lifted the veil on some lobbyist contributions. There's a step foreword.
The Democratic leaders were forced to scrap a promise to double the current one-year lobbying ban after lawmakers leave office. Now, they are struggling to pass legislation requiring lobbyists to disclose the campaign contributions they "bundle" -- collect and deliver -- to lawmakers. Failing to deliver on both measures would endanger similar provisions already passed by the Senate.
Other House rules changes this year appear to have done little to alter business as usual on Capitol Hill. House Democrats voted along party lines on Tuesday to block the censure of one of their most powerful members, Representative John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania. He was accused of violating a new ethics rule that prohibits lawmakers from swapping pork for votes.

May 17, 2007

Very cool set of surveys designed to test various conscious-unconscious divergences. I just took the race test. Very interesting. It says I moderately "prefer" Europena-American face types. I'm not surprised given how white my neighborhood is here in Massachusetts.
It is well known that people don't always 'speak their minds', and it is suspected that people don't always 'know their minds'. Understanding such divergences is important to scientific psychology.
This web site presents a method that demonstrates the conscious-unconscious divergences much more convincingly than has been possible with previous methods. This new method is called the Implicit Association Test, or IAT for short.
In addition, this site contains various related information. The value of this information may be greatest if you try at least one test first...

May 16, 2007

I've become a fan of Christopher Hitchens recently. I certainly don't believe in everything he says -- we definitely disagree on the "war on terror" for example. Also, for his arguments to be more respected, he needs to be more respectful of people's beliefs. That said, he is much more eloquent than I at describing the atheist dogma. I was listening to his debate with Al Sharpton just now and he quoted Philip Larkin's poem Church Going. Hitchens was using the poem to try to explain why people need to believe in religion.
A serious house on serious earth it is, In whose blent air all our compulsions meet, Are recognized, and robed as destinies. And that much never can be obsolete, Since someone will forever be surprising A hunger in himself to be more serious, And gravitating with it to this ground, Which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in, If only that so many dead lie round.
A Newsweek poll in March showed that 48% of American Adults reject evolution. What an absolutely terrible prospect. It basically says that 48% of the people reject science -- listen to the teachings of the ignorant. I certainly respect people's beliefs but not when the fly in the face of scientific evidence. It seems to me that the "Intelligent Design" theory is the crib notes of life -- it is far too simplistic and human. I wrote a lot more commentation on creationism and evolution in Intelligent Design is Not Intelligent.
A belief in God and an identification with an organized religion are widespread throughout the country, according to the latest NEWSWEEK poll. Nine in 10 (91 percent) of American adults say they believe in God and almost as many (87 percent) say they identify with a specific religion. Christians far outnumber members of any other faith in the country, with 82 percent of the pollam. Nearly half (48 percent) of the public rejects the scientific theory of evolution; one-third (34 percent) of college graduates say they accept the Biblical account of creation as fact.

May 15, 2007

In yet another attempt to hold off the Open Software movement, Microsoft has claimed Linux violates patents. They are obviously scared and will use legal means to try to keep their monopoly. They are trying to scare corporations from using open software. This may help their bottom line in the short-term but they will lose in the end. Other sources: Dailytech.
Microsoft is the dominant maker of software that powers servers and desktop PCs, but the company views the free or low-cost Linux operating system alternatives ''with a great deal of concern,'' said Al Gillen, an analyst at the technology research group IDC.
''It's one of the few operating systems that represents a viable threat that Microsoft has a great deal of difficulty containing,'' Gillen said, because the developers share their code. ''Microsoft can't drive a company out of business and make Linux go away,'' the analyst said.
Instead, Microsoft has struck a number of patent-licensing deals with companies that use open source code, most notably Novell Inc. last November. In one aspect of the deal, Microsoft agreed to sell Novell's flavor of Linux, called Suse. It also agreed not to sue the customers who bought it, even though it claims the open-source software infringes on its patents.

May 14, 2007

Here's a good collection of anti-Bush bumper stickers:

The Environmental Protection Agency is coming out with revised mileage ratings that will effect all cars and take some of the shine off hybrid ratings. The Prius went from 60/51 to 48/45 while the Civic Hybrid went from 51/49 to 40/45.

Now, after more than 20 years of producing mileage estimates that were far above what most drivers experienced, the EPA has added new testing procedures that more closely match what the average driver will experience. The EPA created an online calculator based on the revised testing methodology that generates more realistic expectations for today's vehicles.

The two top-selling hybrid vehicles, the Prius and Honda's Civic Hybrid, will lose 12 and 11 miles per gallon respectively from their city driving estimates. Other vehicles are downgraded between 2 and 4 mpg (see chart). Overall, vehicle city mileage estimates dropped by about 12 percent, and some vehicles are expected to be rated 30 percent lower, according to EPA documents.

May 9, 2007

Interesting study which reports that 15% of Americans have neither Internet nor cellphone and that almost 50% have a "distant or non-existent relationship to modern information technology". I'm not sure that it is a bad thing. Is it really a requirement to have one of the two? Actually, is it really necessary to have a cellphone? Internet I wouldn't personally live without but a cellphone I have a love/hate relationship with. Here's the Pew Internet & American Life Project report.
31% of the U.S. population is estimated to cover the et and connected gadgets and can be subdivided into four distinct groups: There are "omnivores" (8%) who "voraciously" participate in cyberspace, "connectors" (7%) who connect to people and manage digital content using [information and communication technologies], "lackluster veterans" (8%) who were amoung the early adoptors of the Internet and are less avid about cell phones and "productivity enhancers" (8%) whose main focus is personal and professional communication.
The middle range of technology users accounts for 20% of the U.S. population. The group of "mobile centrics" (10%) has a preference for cell phones, use the Internet less often and contains a large share of African Americans, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Another 10%, are "connected but hassled" and find connectivity intrustive.
The third group of technology users makes up almost half (49%) of the American population and is believed to own relatively few technology assets. Researchers of the survey said that only 14% of this group has broadband Internet access at home. Besides 15% of people who are "off the network", this group includes "inexperienced experimenters who occasionally use [information and communication technologies] (8%), "light but satisfied" users who do not rely on technology as a central part of their daily lives (15%) and "indifferents" who find connectivity simply annoying.
In another example of how we are still pushing forward on battery technology, researchers at US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory are presenting papers at a conference about how they have developed new layered materials to improve rechargeable lithium batteries. I have long argued that Hydrogen was a dead end considering that it is a battery and not a fuel like gas. You have to use energy to make Hydrogen. Lithium batteries (or whatever is next) should exceed Hydrogen's storage capacity and not have to deal with its explosiveness, high-pressure, and cooling issues. Here's their paper in PDF. Other sources: tgsdaily.
In recent tests, the new materials yielded exceptionally high charge-storage capacities, greater than 250 mAh/g, or more than twice the capacity of materials in conventional rechargeable lithium batteries. Theories explaining the high capacity of these manganese-rich electrodes and their stability upon charge/discharge cycling will be discussed at the Electrochemical Society meeting.
In addition, the overall battery cost is reduced by focusing on manganese-rich systems, instead of the more expensive cobalt and nickel versions of lithium batteries.
Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that incorporate the new materials with increased capacity and enhanced stability could be expected in a diverse range of applications from consumer electronics, such as cell phones and laptop computers, to cordless tools and medical devices, such as cardiac pacemakers and defibrillators. In larger batteries, the technology could be used in the next generation of hybrid-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles.
Very interesting and amusing article from Edmunds.com about a guy who goes undercover as a car salesman. He worked at a real dirty dealer and then a "no-haggle" dealer which was better but not completely aboveboard. Edmunds also has tips and advice for buying and selling a car.
The first numbers that go on the 4-square come from the customer. The down payment and the monthly payment are only what they would like to pay. Now, it's time to get the numbers that the dealership would like the customer to pay. These numbers are called the "first pencil" and they come from a sales manager in the tower. Michael said that the first pencil was the dealership's starting position. "You have to hit them high," Michael explained. "You have to break them inside -- make them understand that if they want our beautiful new car, they're going to have to pay for it."
Here's how we were supposed to get the first pencil from the tower. After the customer test-drove the car we brought them into a sales office and offered them coffee or a Coke to relax them. Then we filled in the information about the car on the 4-square. We then picked up the phone and called the tower. Michael held his hand like a phone receiver with his thumb and little finger sticking out. "You say, 'Yes sir. I have the Jones family here with me and they have just driven a beautiful new whatever model, stock number blah blah blah.' Then you say, 'Is it still available?' Of course you know it is. But you want to create a sense of urgency. So you pause, then say to the customer, 'Great news! The car's still available!' Then the tower will give you the first pencil. Write it in each of the boxes."

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