SkyScout

Back from Vegas and Toronto. I think Lucy got used to me being out of town because she is a bed hog again.

Vegas was great and Toronto went very well for my new process that had never been run on plant scale equipment. Vegas was mostly about college basketball and the only thing on TV in Toronto was the World Curling Championship. You know you are watching too much curling when you can see the flaw in their shot selection before the TV announcers mention it.

My first trip to Toronto came back in Dec. At the time Rachel told me she had already picked out my Christmas present. It turned out to be the Bose Quiet Comfort 3 noise canceling headphones (5 out of 5). I am actually wearing them right now w/o an ipod. I like to wear them at night on the computer to help me relax before bed.
Anyways...back on the plane in Dec, I was trying to guess what Rachel chose for me. I no longer guess out loud after our first Christmas together when I thought the "guess the presents while they are still wrapped" game would be a lot of fun. It wasn't.
Seriously back to the story... there was an ad for an item in the magazine I was reading on the plane. For some reason I thought this was possibly the present that Rachel had picked out for me. It was a great item but very far removed from anything I had ever discussed needing. The Bose noise canceling headphones I had talked about before. Really anything Bose is safe.

So, when I discovered we were getting a tax refund, I decided to buy this item.

It is the SkyScout by Celestron, a hand held planetarium. Using GPS and Accelerometer technology it knows exactly where you are and in which direction you are holding the SkyScout.
To make it short, I looked through the viewfinder at a bright star in the sky and hit "target" and it told me I was looking at Saturn. It then gave me some scientific data on Saturn's distance, period etc and an audio on the history of Saturn.
The other thing you can do is ask it to locate an object for you like Mars, and using red directional lights it will guide you around the sky until you are looking at Mars. It also has a mode where you can see Today's highlights and see what objects are in view for you at the time you are looking in the sky.

Rachel and I have been talking about going to Hocking Hills this summer for vacation, I can't wait to try this out in a really remote, dark, area. I was using it in our front yard and we have a lot of light pollution from Cincinnati. Using the Sky Scout I would guess the Apparent Magnitude limit in our neighborhood is about 5.0. The Spiral Galaxy was in in my field of view but w/ an Apparent Magnitude of 9.0 it was too faint to see. This is going to be fun this summer.

You weren't meant to have a boss.

As I jump from Vegas to Toronto (giving up 40°F), I found this great essay...

You weren't meant to have a boss

This picture is bananas...

Moneyball and 80/20 - American Idol

Moneyball is a great book. If you aren't a baseball fan it may be tough to get through, but has so many lessons for business. I guess the best way to sum it up is there are so many inefficiencies in popular opinion, that if you can identify and find hidden value you will succeed beyond those who can't.
A great example that (even though I benefit from this) boggles my mind is how the Celtics could have made a couple "equal value" trades and go from one of the worst teams in the past 15 years to having the best record in the NBA.

But I digress to American Idol. How is it possible that even after hours of free airtime and hype, only a couple idol winners have actually produced any form of a career? Most years at work we have an American Idol pool, similar to Survivor (which died) pick some Idols and you get points for each week they stay.
This week I was offered a bet by our Idol pool organizer that really got me thinking (thanks Henley). He would offer me the eventual American Idol winner (with months of hype and a big record contract) vs Josiah Leming (who didn't make the top 24), bigger career wins. I didn't take the bet.

My thoughts on Josiah were:
1. He is talented and different, kind of like Cold Play.
2. He gets annoying and cries too much.
3. Maybe not mature enough yet.

Apparently free from the Idol machine, he is leveraging his 80/20 time on idol into building his own independent following on MySpace music. He writes his own songs (anyone picture Kady Malloy doing that?), has over an album worth of material he created and plans to tour this summer.
Here he is on Ellen:

Meanwhile, the Idol hopefuls are stuck on the show until May, then they have to tour for a year to make money for the Corporation, then some will get signed and forced into some pop mold by record companies who think they know music better than those who consume it.
Case in point: Carly Smithson (Hennessy) when she was signed, does this seem like her or a big corporation vision for her?

How could people successful in the music business really think there were 12 guys more talented than Josiah?
(Quick name the 6 guys that were kicked off?)
(Anyone want to buy any of their albums?)

I think this is good news, there is a theory that the stock market is 100% efficient. All the info available is immediately priced into the stock. I don't believe that and I see how inefficient the business world is at work and in sports. It gives me confidence that if you know what you are doing and don't get caught up there are endless opportunities out there to explore.

PS Does anyone think our methods are efficient for picking the leader of our country? Or even worse how me make decisions on how to run the country?

Elections

We tried a new restaurant this weekend with some friends, El Coyote. It was good Tex/Mex with very good salsa, but how many times have you ever been behind parties of 35, 21, and 14? On the way back I was driving Rachel's car and a guy was following me pretty close. At the next light he pulled up along side and asked us to roll down our window, "where did you get that Obama sticker?" Based on today, he must have been visiting from another state, maybe Vermont.

Speaking of voting, despite living in my precinct for 6 years, there is no record of me being registered. Despite the fact that I voted last year and back to 2004.

Why are most poll workers condescending and almost try to make you feel thankful that they will allow you to vote today?

Why is online voting so hard, when I can access all of my money online w/o worrying about losing a penny? Maybe we'll be voting at US Bank in the future.

Voting Instructions should read:
Come to America, where you are free to register to vote to influence the delegate who actually gets to vote on your behalf for whoever will benefit him/her politically.

Our country is a mess because more people voted for David Archuleta than any presidential candidate.