Rants and Raves

There is a good article on CNN.com by Donna Brazile on what President Obama could (and should) do to get the economy back on track.

I think she’s got the right idea, but I think she really stops short of just outright saying that the problem isn’t necessarily Obama’s failed programs, it’s his failed leadership.

Now is not the time to sit on the fence Mr President; you’ve tried to build a consensus with congress (you failed to do that when your party had control of both houses, and you’ve continued to fail to do that now that your party doesn’t)… it’s time for you to lead — or to step aside and let someone else do so.

The problems this country has are solvable; but every day we wait to start moving down a path that is likely to put us on the road to get American’s working and to pay down the enormous debt that Republicans and Democrats alike have saddle the current (and future) generation(s) with we simply make the problem harder — and at some point there will not be a solution, the US will simply drift into the fray of third world countries never likely to regain it’s position as a real world leader again.

So, Mr President — be the president; make the hard choices; and move this country forward… it’s not the time to be a politician or a two term hopeful, it’s time to be a president.

4 ways Obama can take control to get America back on track by Donna Brazile on CNN.com

Originally posted 2011-08-17 02:00:42.

Tags: Economy, Education, Employment, Politics by roger
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The government of India has unveiled a $35 tablet PC that they intend to use to replace text books in India.

The Laptop Per Child project (OLPC) developed a $200 durable notebook prototype in 2005 that’s designed use in schools in developing country and has plans for a $100 tablet.

India, though, has created a computing device that costs less than most text books, and the government will further subsidize the cost.

In a country where electricity is a scarce commodity in many regions (the tablets will have a solar power option for use in rural areas) they seem to have a much better grasp on the concept of leaving no child behind and creating a technologically empowered generation ready to perform the jobs of tomorrow.

The US leaves no child behind by simply holding everyone back to the level of the underachiever — easy to understand why we’re becoming a third world nation.

Originally posted 2010-08-01 02:00:31.

Tags: Computers, Education, Hardware, Technology by roger
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Utopia or Eutopia; homophones and a double entendre for sure…

• Utopia is a term for an ideal society.
• Dystopia is a negative utopia: a totalitarian and repressive world.
• Eutopia is a positive utopia, different in that it means “perfect” but not “fictional”.
• Outopia derived from the Greek ‘ou’ for “no” and ‘-topos’ for “place,” a fictional, this means unrealistic or directly translated “Nothing, Nowhere” This is the other half from Eutopia, and the two together combine to Utopia.
• Heterotopia, the “other place”, with its real and imagined possibilities (a mix of “utopian” escapism and turning virtual possibilities into reality).

__________

• Utopia: from Greek: οὐ, “not”, and τόπος, “place”.
• Eutopis: derived from the Greek εὖ, “good” or “well”, and τόπος, “place”.

Most modern usage of the term “Utopia” incorrectly assumes the latter meaning, that of a place of perfection rather than nonexistence.  You can thank Sir Thomas Moore for this.

Tags: Education, General by roger
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By Amy Haimerl, personal finance editor CNN
October 26, 2010: 4:27 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The U.S. Marines recruit college students to become one of the few, one of the proud.

Bank of America just wants their financial future.

The Charlotte, N.C.-based bank spends exponentially more money than any other bank to recruit students for credit cards.

In 2009, Bank of America unit FIA Card Services paid colleges and alumni associations $62 million for the rights to market cards to students and members, according to a report from the Federal Reserve.

The second biggest spender, Chase, dropped $13.8 million to recruit new borrowers, while U.S. Bank forked over $2.5 million.

When the Credit Card Accountability and Responsibility and Disclosure Act — better known as the CARD Act — went into effect in February, it required credit card companies to disclose how much they pay colleges for the right to set up on campuses — plus how many new borrowers it racked up. On Monday, the Federal Reserve made its first report.
College degrees that don’t pay

In total, the report showed that credit card companies spent $82.4 million to net 53,164 new student accounts.

The University of Notre Dame got the biggest payment of any school: Chase paid the school $1.8 million and in the end got 77 new borrowers. The school used the funds exclusively for financial aid, according to university spokesman Dennis Brown.

Meanwhile, Bank of America spent $1.5 million on the University of Southern California campus to sell 659 new accounts.

“If you look at how much is being paid per account, the numbers vary wildly,” says Josh Frank, senior researcher at the Center for Responsible Lending.

In pre-CARD Act year, Frank estimates that 200,000 to 600,000 new accounts were opened on college campuses and through alumni and other organizations.

“But even in a normal year,” he said, “this seems like a lot of money to pay per account. But it’s possible that they just value those accounts more highly and that they’re more profitable for them.”

One major change from the CARD Act is that students under 21 can no longer obtain a credit card without a co-signer — something that could severely limit new accounts. Credit card companies also can’t entice new borrowers through T-shirts and other giveaways — unless they are 1,000 feet (about three football fields) away from the campus.

“Anecdotally, it does seem to be a different environment on college campuses,” Frank said. “Banks are still on campus, but their presence is lower.

Chase paid the University of Notre Dame $1.8 million for the right to market credit cards on the Indiana campus.

Original article on CNN.com

Originally posted 2010-11-08 02:00:40.

Tags: Banks and Credit Unions, Credit Cards, Economy, Education, Finance by roger
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