Jormungand
Sunday, August 14, 2016
Taking 2 weeks off
So I got some friends who went out of town. And now I have the privilege of dog sitting three big puppies (well one's a tiny puppy and the other two are big kahunas). So I'll be preoccupied and thus have little time to write or post. As such, I'll see you all in two weeks. Feel free to catch up on posts you may have missed :)
Thursday, August 11, 2016
Flexible Figures
Another Economist article with a subtitle of "Dynamic
Pricing" it discusses applying electronic price displays and constant
price updates to retail stores and its impact. Here is what it entails.
So basically, stores would use electronic
displays to show the prices of their goods. This obviously eliminates the
need for people to run around replacing price displays and obviously saves time
and paper. However this is not all it does. It allows stores to
adjust their prices every few hours or even every few minutes. Apparently
prices are affected by things like the time of day, weather, competitor’s sales
and any other condition imaginable. As such a store can pinpoint when a
discount is most needed to push the sales of certain goods, and as such some
sales can last hours as opposed to days. In effect the electronic pricing
displays smooth demand by adjusting prices based on want and need. This
allows the rich to pay more as they may come in during specific times of the
day, or buy certain goods more regularly during certain events while the poor
will save money as they require cheaper prices thus prices will adjust to move
sales to accommodate them. However this is still expensive for stores to
do in the short term and thus will, once it becomes more affordable switch
over.
In the meantime other businesses have
embraced the model. Sports events, concerts, zoos and similar that all
sell tickets can and have used this technology of constant price adjustment to
exploit demand for high value tickets while stimulating people to buy unwanted
tickets by making those ones cheaper. Thus demand is stimulated in one
event or part of a concert hall while the other is curbed thus ensuring more
seats are filled and maximizing profit. Toll booths too can and have
used this technology to adjust their prices every five minutes to get drivers
to keep moving so as to avoid a higher price. Airlines already use this
too by charging more for frequent flyers due to thinking that trips are job
related. (Even Amazon adjusts their prices every hour).
There is a risk however as Uber found out
the hard way. Their reputation was damaged when their prices shot up 8
fold during and post hurricane event. People saw it as price gauging even
though it was merely them adjusting for all the variables that affect supply
and demand for their services. As such they have capped their cost
increases to 3.5% maximum during such events.
People also learn to play this price game
as some people will go to internet cafes or areas which are considered poor and
buy an item thus fooling the algorithms put in place. Truth be told. I
have no problem with this as it means people will go and do business in less
affluent areas and thus stimulate that area’s economy buy also buying local
goods.
Final Thought: This is a great idea as people can
save more money and businesses maximize profits thus keeping them in business
in the first place. Sure there are people who may not like being charged
more which is why balance is needed, but the advantages in savings for
businesses and people as a whole is too much to pass up.
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
Gender and Politics/Society
When I was growing up, gender meant something very different than
what it does today. Today it means sexual orientation, a person’s
attraction to others and how that all manifests. But what I learned back
in school is that it was a description of people’s masculine and feminine roles
in society. That these roles were defined by society itself from
generation to generation. However the term is often used in place of
describing a person’s physical sex as well as orientation. Is this a good
development? What impact does it have? Here is my opinion.
Between people of various genders and
orientations wanting to be treated equal, to write the wrongs of the past and
people lacking knowledge of people with other sexual orientations due to their
suppression by religious and other majority communities we have created the
modern version for the definition of gender. It now is all encompassing
for all people of all forms of sexual attraction with the word sex, simply
meaning sex as opposed to defining if a part of a species is male or female.
To me this has resulted in a political class of individuals who have been
repressed in the past that have joined together to make a society where it is
acceptable to be a particular gender without the dirty or confused looks.
Basically, they reclassify gender to its current definition so that they
could have a say in politics and use our politicians want for power and need to
use victims against them (good show LGBT community, put the screws to them).
At the same time, references to gender that segment society are slowly
being eliminated. For instance, the "Founding Fathers" are now
in text books called the "Founders" or Founders of America,
eliminating the term Father and its traditional gender role. The result
of this is a society that does not see gender at all, and potentially will go
the ways of the Ancient Greeks and Romans with respect to having sexual
relations (basically have fun with whoever you like).
Is this a bad thing? Not really.
For one we eliminate a form of prejudice and stigmas that have been in
place for thousands of years that have led to the persecution of individuals.
Also, eliminating some (perhaps not all) gender identity references can
lead to a society where jobs, family roles, and more are not defined by
societal standards, and instead fit the family unit no matter what form it may
take (the Supreme Court Ruling on Gay marriage helped this along). I
think terms that define what people prefer will develop further as scientists,
and the communities that embrace their gender identities seek to define who
they are in the same way people try to classify their ideologies. But are
they going to fast? I think so. The issue over public bathrooms,
showers and changing rooms is a big example and has caused a great deal of trouble.
Not because men, women and others get changed or release themselves in
the same location, but because there are people who will abuse this.
People like Voyeurs, Rapists, or idiot collage kids have used this to
attack people at worst or to take advantage of the situation at best.
Sure desensitizing people to other people’s bodies in the same way that
violent video games desensitize youth to violence can be a benefit, but when
people abuse the privilege of a public setting, then steps must be taken.
As such where can we take safer steps to
make a change that all of society will be ready to take? So maybe elementary to
middle school bathrooms, and sports teams should be the first on the list for
bathroom/changing room changes and even desegregating sports teams based on
girls and boys teams to make them all-inclusive and ensure that children of all
sexual orientations get to play (and I mean all people who want to play, not
just the team’s top players). Children should be focused on first because
they learn their behavior from adults and Middle Schools/middle grades are when
sexual differences begin to be noticed more. Stores can help by
eliminating male and female sections/marketing and re-branding items based on
simply style or want (kind of like what Target Stores did). Desensitizing
students by having a sex education course talk about everything, and I mean
everything, that has to do with people of various genders having sex, paying
for sex and of course reproduction and safe practices to prevent
diseases/pregnancy may become a must if this continues (some European countries
start their children in these courses in fourth grade). Other areas of
gender elimination or redefinition may continue to occur as well (but I think
that steps should be taken in this so as not to mistakenly alter history as has
been accidentally done in the past when revisions to terminology have been made
in history books as this can cause problems in the future).
Final Thought: Basically I am OK with the way
society is heading with respect to gender despite my personally being religious
and my being a straight male. I do believe we may be going too fast with
respect to bathrooms, public showers and changing rooms, but typically liberals
want to rush things along while conservative minded people like myself favor
slow progress where people accept things over time. I personally think
the sex education courses should do the aforementioned but also include health
and wellness type classes so that all aspects of the body are learned including
how exercise, food, drugs and diseases affect the body and how to basically
protect, diagnose and cure yourself. But hell, that is just me. Also,
what is done is done. The bathroom changes cannot be taken back and
society will adjust with time to the point where we may have public baths like
old school Japan (yea, the hot springs and such were mixed bathing). So
at this point it is a waiting game to see what is in store for us and our
society.
Tuesday, August 9, 2016
Can Organizations Become independent like Countries?
So can they? Can an organization like a business or a
charity become independent like a country? In the past this was not the
case, but now given the resources and power people have it is. Allow me
to explain.
So in the past sovereignty and power were
concentrated in physical property and thus, whoever controlled that physical
wealth controlled all who lived on it. However with time and technology
this changed. Property and wealth stopped being 100% physical and thus a king’s
army or a countries military could no longer enforce their control via force.
The internet was the final death toll for countries consolidation of
power. Now disparate people can use the internet to generate wealth and
power without need for permissions from a government. The reason for this
is that with the internet we merely have to pay for access and the rest comes
free. So a business need not need a store front, or a license to sell
anymore. Basically the internet created intangible property that is
almost impossible to control or govern. From their it was only a matter
of time before things shifted and people began banding together via businesses,
ideas, ideologies and religions into cohesive groups via this boarder less
world created via IT. But even then it was not complete until terrorists
actually showed us the way, the Internet’s darker half. They used the net
to recruit, plan and act all in accordance to their own will and identity.
Now while we try to shut them down, people looked at how they organized
and began to mimic it, but instead for the betterment of man. As such,
peaceful people can organize peaceful religions into online communities that
span boarders. The people who govern the internet itself are not
governments anymore either, but instead various groups who meet and discuss how
to maintain, enhance and preserve the internet and what it gives us.
Governments cannot readily control all these private groups because they
are IT developers, businesses, entrepreneurs and more that span across multiple
countries. As such a single country cannot control all these groups to
exert their influence. They cannot go in and arrest them all if literally
thousands of groups the world over based in over 50 plus different countries
are all working together to overcome a single country that seeks to become a
tyrant. Not only that, there will always be a replacement. As such,
if a country is a Dragon hording treasure, the people who live, work and
protect the internet are snakes who can never be slayed all at once and will
always breed another to take their place.
Final Thought: Essentially the internet created so
many communities of people that they can amass equal or greater resources than
that of a single country or even multiple countries as they can collect all the
information and wealth they have in a single or multiple places making them
practicably invincible. These groups can function in any way they choose
by mimicking a government itself or just dedicating themselves to a single task
all the while coordinating themselves almost seamlessly. They are a
future where boarders do not exist and everyone can be a king of their own
country.
Monday, August 8, 2016
Bernie Sanders: Betrayal or Honor?
Did Bernie Sanders betray his supporters? Is he a hypocrite
now for supporting Hillary Clinton, a proven dishonest politician? Here
are my thoughts.
While I did not support Bernie Sanders, I
did find his honesty refreshing. He told you exactly what he was and what
he was about. That is why so many people found it easy to support him.
But is he a hypocrite? No, I thought he was at first for supporting
Hillary, but he gave his word to support Hillary Clinton if she was to get the
nomination. He was true to his word. But he knew he was forced out.
Sanders knew he was being pushed out by the corrupt forces in his own
party, but he kept his word to maintain his integrity and his honor. As
such he fall on his sword.
Final Thought: I feel bad for Bernie Sanders.
He did not deserve this, and I cannot imagine how much pain mentally he
had to go through to support Clinton. However he did it and what's done
is done. Hillary is the nominee and aspects of his promises will be done
in Hillary's presidency assuming she manages to win with yet another scandal
hanging over her head. I may not agree with what Bernie Sanders thinks
politically, but at the end of the day you have no choice but to respect
him. (Note: He did get a private jet from the DNC though).
Thursday, August 4, 2016
Political Debate Scheduling issues
There is a problem with the upcoming presidential debates.
They are all scheduled on the same day as major sporting events. So
why is this a problem?
The problem is that it reduces viewership
of the debates and thus can swing the election from one side to the other.
Discounting the fact that people are going to purposefully miss such an
important debate, let alone three due to a sporting event, this could very well
mean that either Trump or Hillary would win depending on whose numbers are
higher at the time. Trump even went as far as claiming that it was
electioneering based on how the Democratic Presidential debates were held on
Saturdays when viewership would be lowest so as to sabotage Bernie Sanders.
Needless to say this has both political campaigns arguing on if and when
to change the dates.
Final Thought: Well I think the debate dates
should be changed and be as close as possible to Election Day as possible.
Basically keep it all fresh in the minds of everyone of what each
candidate represents. I think the debate days will be changed and both candidates’
campaigns will have a hell of a time doing so. And I think these debates
will be very fun to watch.
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
The Khan family VS. Trump
Khizr and Ghazala Khan are the proud parents of a United States
soldier who sadly was killed over in Iraq. They were invited to speak at
the DNC as one of many guest speakers. There speech however included
criticism of Trump saying that he probably has not read the United States
Constitution, and that under a President Trump their son would not have been
allowed to serve citing Trumps idea for a ban on the visitation rights of
Muslims and travel into the United States. Trump fired back targeting Mrs.
Khan saying how she kept quiet during the speech potentially due to her being a
Muslim Woman and not being allowed to speak. This was a mistake as Mrs.
Khan was quoted soon after that she did not speak because she was filled with
emotion as a picture of her son was being displayed and upon seeing her sons’
picture she could not speak without letting all her grief flow out. Trump
screwed up as he basically attacked a Gold Star Mom (the mother of a member of
our military) which has many veterans and other groups condemning his comments
as stupid and pathetic. Mr. Trump has so far not taken back any of his
statements and has buckled down.
Final Thought: As we all know, Donald Trump is
abrasive, difficult to deal with, and of course 100% politically incorrect.
Should he have reacted? Yes, but in a way that respected the family
of our armed forces. He has been quoted however saying that he respects
Captain Khan who was killed and his service to the country. If Trump
really wanted to answer in a good way, he should have thanked the family for
raising a good son and an honorable soldier, and then left it alone. This
never should have gotten this far and potentially sets a precedent that
everyone is fair game to be attacked or counter attacked in this election cycle.
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