Issue 527 How to use a journal February 13, 2015

A journal is, for all intents and purposes, a tool for you to use.  It helps you remember things that you want to remember with a level of clarity that you otherwise cannot remember on your own.  But how exactly do you use one?  That is what I would like to answer in today's issue.

An everyday journal:  In this type of journal you write about what goes on in your everyday life.  From the mundane to the exciting.  It is all about you saying what happened and possibly expressing how you felt about it.  You can also use this journal as a tool to look back at how you changed over time, or to see if you feel like you are living a fulfilled life.  Basically, this form of journal (can be synonymous with Dairy) is what Anne Frank wrote which is now read around the world.  So you can emulate Anne Frank and write about the tough times, your interactions with others that you felt were positive or negative, or critique yourself in the hopes of improving yourself.  Overall, this is the typical journal.

Inspiration type:  This type is used by people who want to write down thoughts or ideas.  Musicians can write about sounds they wish to emulate, writers can make notes on story elements, or actively imaginative people can simply make up a story, character, or anything for that matter.  It is all about writing down what inspires you.

Goal/task driven:  For this type you dedicate the journal to a specific subject or task.  I have several of these myself dedicated to blog topics, newspaper articles that I want to share with you all, and basic information gathered from news and other sources.  I have met people who use such journals for work related activities, and others for career or future goals like their plans on when and how they will buy a house.   It is very simple but effective use of a journal turning it into more of a notebook rather than an actual journal.

Exchange Journal:  Here is a type of journal that is shared amongst a number of people (2 or more).  In this case, it is usually used by those who cannot meet up very often or for those who cannot share certain thoughts aloud.  Basically one person starts, and writes down an event or their opinion on something.  Then it is left to the next person to read that entry, maybe put their own reactions or opinions on that and then write their own event that they wish to talk about.  It is very similar to how people used to exchange letters or emails, but without the physical distance (though there may be social distance involved).

Conclusion:  The sheer number of subjects upon which to write in a journal is limitless.  In fact there really is no wrong way to use one.  You can write in it every day, or once a month, or just when you feel like something is worth writing down.  But these are the basic types that I have learned about and in some cases use to benefit myself.  So what about you?  Do you think a journal will be useful to you?

Issue 526 Life long prisons February 12, 2015

So what if we could house prisoners cheaply.  There may actually be a solution to that.  So here is the idea.

The idea:  Basically we are using the same concept as a gated community, but in this case to house inmates.  They would be sorted based on their crimes, with rapists and child molesters in a single community and murderers in another (the two crimes that usually deserve or get life imprisonment).  We would still get giant walls, and triple fencing with barbed wire, but inside there would be no guards.  Inside would be a series of tiny living spaces, similar to micro homes for each inmate.  So this eliminates bad roommates.  Yes they would get a kitchen and all the amenities of such a home, but this is by no means a free ride.  

They would be forced to feed and cook for themselves every day.  To feed them, there will be a hydroponics garden which they must use to grow and harvest food on a daily basis. Their own waste would be harvested to supply nutrients for the garden with additional nutrients added by outside means if necessary. Meat will be provided in the form of small animals like rabbits, squirrels, chicken and even high protein bugs.  Basically, cheap fast growing food in both animal and plant forms.  They will be given recipes and equipment to be self-sustaining.  

For education/recreation they will have access to an online reading library and free movies via a restricted access internet connection (equivalent to parental controls).  They will also receive any and all correspondence with family via the internet.  Anyone caught misbehaving will have the internet shut down or electricity as the entire complex will run on a smart electrical grid powered by solar panels and wind turbines with only additional power coming from outside when those sources are not enough.  Also, there will be a community room with gym equipment, and basketball, tennis and other sport functions.  

Any excess food grown can be given up by said prisoners to a repository so it can be sold to people to support the cost of running this type of prison. Small factory based facilities, or IT jobs will be made available for them to learn and do as well. In exchange, the prisoners then can get special privileges for performing such work/tasks (privileges are as yet to be determined, but special foods like steak, or hard to get items like cigarettes seem the best candidates)

Guards will be posted around said community and have barracks.  They will live and work at the gated prison in shifts of a month at a time.  Their primary duty is to monitor prisoners via cameras and microphones, and prevent escape.  Otherwise they do not interact with the prisoners at all.

Conclusion: This is obviously a concept from which prisoners take care of themselves in a self-sustaining community so as to reduce costs while teaching skills the prisoners need to get by in life if for some reason they get out of jail.  Obviously men and women will be housed separately and great care will be used to insure only appropriate cases go to one of these facilities.  The idea of course is still being developed by yours truly and I have no way to stop these people from murdering each other if they so desire, though the goal should be to create a form of dependency on each other to prevent that.  Also, to prevent anarchy, suitable losses of privileges would/should work to incentivize good behavior (loss of meat privileges, cutting off electricity to the dwelling etc.).  So will it work, who knows, but at least in this idea we would not pay for these people anymore with them doing all the internal upkeep and taking care of themselves and us just paying for the guards.

Issue 525 Micro homes and Apartments February 11, 2015

Slowly but surely micro homes and apartments are growing in popularity.  But why would such tiny living spaces have such appeal to so many, and what are the tradeoffs.  Let's discuss.

What does it mean to live micro:  These living spaces are literally a single bathroom, a living area that potentially doubles as a bedroom, and a galley style kitchen.  Typically you will be living in 80 to 400 square foot homes as opposed to 800 plus square foot homes.  So you will be living in a very tiny place.  This tiny living space can be applied to homes, apartments or even other forms of dwellings that intend to maximize space.  Typically a micro home will have a small loft that either acts as storage or a bedroom.  The living area and kitchen are typically squished together and another small room acts as a bedroom or an additional multipurpose area.  And of course there is a bathroom that usually has a composting toilet as there is usually no plumbing (if in a tree house or portable micro home).  Both apartments and micro homes have the capability of using murphy beds (fold out beds), fold out tables, drawers inside stairs (if they exist instead of a ladder), and under floor storage or pull down from the ceiling storage.  Beds if inside will either have storage underneath them in the floor or the frame, or host a series of drawers or cubbies.  Couches and benches (and sometimes chairs) will host internal storage as well.  Basically, these dwellings will make every use of space savings potential they can get.  Heck, even treehouses make use of the same technology so they too become a viable option.  

Advantages:  The biggest advantages is the cost.  These dwellings run very cheap and typically is the cost of a small car.  Apartments of this variety also run cheap while maximizing occupancy for low income earners in an apartment building (good for the landlord and those looking for a place to live).  Retirees seem to like this idea as they no longer have to pay a mortgage or pay a very small one.  In addition this living arrangement works for those scaling down.  Also, if you want to take your home with you, a good portion of these micro homes are portable in the same way as a trailer.  So cheapness, and scaling down seem to be the primary advantages.

Disadvantages:  Living like this is not for everyone.  Some people need large homes to fit all their stuff and cannot live in such cramped conditions.  Others may dislike the fact that they will have to scale down from larger grander homes, thus sacrificing memories (though many get through this by repurposing older items like pots into lamp shades, blankets into pillows and so on).  Overall space is the primary drawback and living in such a way can be draining to some (people may not like the idea of pulling their bed out of a wall or having to lift up the couch cushion to get items).  Hence why micro apartments seem to fit those who want tiny living and can get used to all the cubby spaces, but not those who want to avoid the possible work (composting toilets) that comes with it.

Conclusion:  So you have cheap comfortable living with the tradeoff of space issues.  Depending on who you are, this can be great for single people or couples whose kids have already moved out.  This also works great for college students looking to strike out on their own, but lack the means to buy a full blown home let alone a regular sized apartment.  So it would probably work for someone like me, as I like to think I can live small (despite all the books, models and other items I have stored in my 80 (8x10) square foot bedroom).  So if you think this is right for you, feel free to embrace your compact nature.

Issue 524 Homeless and the homes first approach February 10, 2015

So there is another (and possibly counter intuitive) approach to getting the homeless off the streets and into homes.  It is called the homes first approach, and I’m going to tell you how it works.  (Original source is "The Economist" November 15th 2014 issue).

How it works:  It is basically no strings attached housing for the poor.  Most homeless are apparently mentally ill, alcoholic or drug addicted with many possibly being all three.  The original staircase method required the homeless to quit drinking and doing drugs before putting them into emergency and temporary housing from which they were deemed if they were eligible to be housed.  But according to the article, this staircase approach had many refusing to sign up, and less than half make it all the way to subsidized housing.   

However, the homes first approach that was come up with by Sam Tsemberis, a professor of psychiatry at New York University, in 1992 which was called Pathways to Housing is different. To successfully facilitate and impact the lives of the homeless, those at most risk of dying in the street are put to the top of the list for finding homes.  From there the homeless were given homes in cheap/poor districts.  Medical care, treatment for addiction, learning to cook, learning to pay bills and other services were offered to these individuals, but none of these was required.  After 5 years 88% of the people in the program remained housed.  Since then it has been copied around the world in 200 American cities and in Denmark, Finland, while being tried out in Japan, Australia and Canada.  This international attention has resulted in it being called the "homes first: approach.  

Why it actually saves money:  Apparently long term rough sleepers "...are 15% of all homeless people, but use more than half of all public spending including on services, medical care, detox and jail."  In Denver, Colorado, its 300 heavy utilizers costs taxpayers $37,000 each a year, but putting them into a home with support makes them cost half as much.   The Canadian city of Calgary (the first Canadian city to use the program) saw an average savings of $30,000 per person in its more acute cases.  And the savings continue with the least complex cases costing even less or nothing at all depending on the support needs.  This also allows public services to be freed up for what they are supposed to do, like police officers fighting crime rather than arresting homeless people for trespassing or being a public nuisance.

Conclusion:  Well it is overall a successful program based on what the article presented.  However, while it has been shown to improve the former homeless individual’s quality of life and even their ability to function in a community, many still continue to abuse alcohol, drugs and remain unemployable according to studies. Also, finding cheap homes is still an issue as rents and prices increase with the only possible solution being a planned public housing development.   However, this saving money and saving lives seems to be worth the cost. So what do you think, as it saves money and helps the poor at the same time?  Is it worth the effort?  I seem to think so based on the evidence given in the article.

Issue 523 Are exams outdated? February 9, 2015

Here we are going to talk a little about education and its future.  In this case with the advent of computer based learning, have exams become outmoded.  Let us discuss.

The future classroom:  Whether it is in the home or in a traditional school setting children are relying more and more on computers to learn, study and overall be judged based on their performance.  In the classroom, children sit at a computer terminal where they watch tutorials, solve puzzles and other problems and then advance in their studies at their own pace.  Teachers are in the classroom to assist students having trouble to help them over equations and problems that they can now largely learn and solve by themselves.  It is also noted that students are no longer relegated to having to wait for their peers to learn something new.  Students thus are able to continue forward even if it is supposed to be beyond their grade level.  So what does this mean for the old fashioned exams that students would prepare for, for weeks?  

Exams are gone:  Truth is, with this computer based learning system taking over, exams become useless.  Exams are designed to measure mastery over one subject at a time, or multiple subjects at once.  However, with students going at their own pace and even skipping ahead to do work that normally was taught at higher grade levels, the exam becomes displaced.  Computer learning is even able to build upon each lesson and link subjects together more easily and thus learning via computer becomes mutually supporting.   With all this in mind, exams would have to be tailored to each student to work, which would cost a lot of money.  But with computer learning however, that exam is not required to measure performance.  In fact, computers measure the performance of each child which removes wasted time studying for exams and their associated week long scheduling which takes precious learning time away from children.  Children are monitored in real time and the computer can even bring in questions to courses to aid the student who was having trouble in a particular area until they gain proficiency.  So the exam is now outmoded due to the slow adoption of real time assessment and monitoring.

Conclusion:  Yes I know, big brother will be watching our kids and their progress.  But this computer learning approach that gives our kids a chance to go farther faster and at a pace that they are comfortable with has too many advantages to pass up.  And now, the exams and other tests become a waste of time and money which inherently removes one of the biggest wastes of money in our education system next to printed textbooks.  Even SATs' and other college entrance exams can be eliminated as the student merely has to submit their computer learning information to demonstrate how well they do in all subject areas at once and thus allows them to be compared with other applicants in an expedient manner.  So what do you say my readers.  Is this a good thing for education?  As it progresses forward we will just have to wait and see.

Issue 522 Altering time?! February 6, 2015

So here we ask, why do we have Daylight savings time in the United States?  Why 24hours in a day?  And why not use military time which seems to be an international standard?  Let us discuss.

Why do we tell time the way we do:  The simple reason is because ancient people figured it all out with math.  The seven day week which we originally got from the ancient Babylonians matched perfectly with the solar and lunar cycle which defines the length of a year.  From there the 24 hours in a day was designed to match up with this to perfectly calculate hour and minute per day in correspondence with the number of days of the week.   But, why do we even tell time?  Why is it needed?  Well, think about it.  What would our day look like without being able to tell time?  We could not set up times to meet accurately, nor be efficient on tasks for working and home life.  Sailors need to tell time so they can calculate their positions at sea or else they would be thrown off course.  Farming also would be inaccurate as time, days and months help dictate harvest times to maximize crop yields and prepare for winter months.   So telling time and what day of the year all revolves around our ancient admiration of the stars, and from that we base our lives and prosperity on this ancient and powerful invention.

What is not accounted for:  Daylight savings time is an American invention that was conceived by Benjamin Franklin.  The original idea was to minimize the use of candles for people waking up in the early hours of the mornings, and for nights where dusk fell early due to seasonal changes.  More modern reasoning has it so we can be more productive by allowing people to stay out later in the evening during seasons where the sun is out till late in the afternoon, and for seasons where the sun rises early or late.  That one hour being pushed back or forward gives us literally an extra hour than we would have had if we did not use daylight savings.  And it is an American exclusive.  As such I chalk it up to cultural reasoning with Americans wanting to be productive.

What is also not accounted for is the difference between American and the rest of the world’s methods of telling time. Americans in the United States use the base 12 system counting each hour twice, while the rest of the world uses a base 24 system counting the full 24 hours in a day.  Again this is cultural, and despite our military using the base 24 system here in the United States, the society with its clocks and other cultural norms still supports base 12 for us here.

Conclusion:  So we have a reason as to why we tell time the way we do.  It has to do with the way we measure a year using celestial bodies like the sun.  As to minor differences like daylight savings, and counting 12 hours at a time over 24, we chalk this entirely to culture and possibly some inventor attempting to improve our world.

Issue 521 The Auditing Office February 5, 2015

This is one of my own concepts that I have been developing overtime.  The goal was to simplify government with respect to monitoring where and how funds are spent.  So this issue is a re-hash of that idea, and my attempt to improve upon the concept.  Let us begin.

What it is supposed to do:

1) All auditing functions in the federal government become centralized in this one agency under the treasury department.  It eliminates the need for Presidents and the Senate to appoint and confirm auditors for each individual department which saves time and money.  As such, only two people would need to be confirmed, the leader and deputy of this new agency, with everyone else being hired out for the job by them or similar department.

2)  As part of the auditing process, these men and women of the Auditing office would pick and choose projects and agencies at their leisure.  This is meant to insure that each agency is completely unprepared for such an audit and thus forces them to keep their accounts and successes recorded on a daily basis in order to comply at a moment’s notice.  Overall, this ensures transparency and saves money.  (There will also be a method of punishment if they do not comply, save freezing pay, funds, or halting promotions, and transferring people out of the non-compliant agency or office).

3) The Auditing office would have the power to shut down programs they deem superfluous, redundant or wasteful if they do not meet a set criteria.  That criteria will be set by Congress and approved by the President, but if the Congress and or the President fail to perform such, the auditing office will do create their own.  The Auditing office can even shut down or reorganize or merge entire agencies, departments or programs as they see fit without approval of any other government body.   To ensure there is no corruption involved, or that the merger, or removal of program or agency is good, the Auditing office will have three teams evaluate the merits based on the evidence suggested.  Team A will look for reasons to abolish, or merge, while team B will try to refute team A's reasoning and justify the continued existence of a program or agency.  Team C will have the job of evaluating both team A and B's findings and arguments with them making the final decision.

4)  Within this Auditing office will be the Human Resources department.  It will conduct all the hiring, firing, promotions and transfers of the entire federal government.  In this department, they will evaluate each individual worker in the federal government to see their skill set, productivity, ability to work with others, and other performance factors to determine if they are worth keeping, or if they can be reassigned to a place they can be even more useful.

5) Another office in the Auditing office would be the Internal Office.  Here this office will perform the same tasks as listed in numbers one through four, but in this case applying it to the auditing office.  Basically it acts like internet affairs.

Possibilities of other powers:  

1) The office can audit elected representatives to look for corruption.

2) Any money saved from mergers, or elimination of programs, departments or agencies will be collected by this office, used to pay for their functions to keep them financially independent of the Congress (thus avoiding corruption and obscurity) save the Internal Office to keep egos in check.  Any money left over from expenses will be used to pay off the national debt.

3) The office can reduce funds going to a program, department or agency if there is a surplus going to said program department or agency and then use it to fund a different program, department or agency that is deemed worthwhile, but is considered underfunded.

4) The office will look for other methods and technologies to make the government as financially efficient and work efficient as possible.  As such they will also have the means of proposing methods of adoption (if those methods require financial funding) to Congress.  If said methods do not require financial support, then the Auditing office, after approval from the internal office may implement the method or technology in any way they deem fit.

Conclusion:  Overall, the idea is to simplify government, and make it cost efficient.  Congress seems inept at this, and we may not want to give such powers to the President.  So where do we turn, an independent panel or group we call experts.  As such, this is my proposal for an Auditing office.