Harvard: Step Into My Office… October 23, 2007
Posted by triviaguy in Rants, harvard.Tags: environment, harvard, sport
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We need to talk. I had a soccer game last weekend on one of your fields behind Harvard Stadium. In order to get there, I had to walk past a turf field where the field hockey team was playing against Princeton. While passing by I noticed a number of giant water cannons blasting the turf fields with water. You were watering the turf. Turf = fake grass. What the hell?
I asked some of my classmates why you might be doing this. Does Harvard hate the environment? Do they have too much money? Both? No one had an answer for me.
A couple days later I spotted this article which describes a similar situation at Duke and North Carolina and the similar befuddlement that results. The major difference between Cambridge, MA and NC? North Carolina is in the middle of one of its worst droughts ever. They apparently are going to completely run out of water in about 60 days. So that makes sense. From the article:
After a home game against Maryland this weekend, the Tar Heels will spend the remainder of the season on the road.
Duke, too, will be away more than it’s home. Those trips, athletics officials say, will allow the teams to conserve water. “We can then be more in compliance with what the community would like.”
Ah. In order to be ‘greener’ we can bus the kids across the country. Way to go.
Health Insurance Is A Scam. October 19, 2007
Posted by triviaguy in Rage, Rants, business.2 comments
I need to vent about something that just happened. It will require a bit of history for context. A few years ago I started working for a tiny software startup. I worked from home and didn’t get the normal corporate perks like a 401k, phone, or health insurance. So when I decided to come back to school this year for a Masters, I was REALLY excited about having health insurance again, even though it’s still costing me in the neighborhood of $2,000 for the year.
Now, I was just in the Rite-Aid on River St. in Cambridge…right next to the Whole Foods. I was buying a toothbrush. I noticed a booth near the pharmacy section where they were giving flu shots. I got in line for my shot, filled out their paperwork, and then the nurse asked if I had health insurance. Because my answer to that question has been “no” for three long years, I was VERY proud to be able to say “yes” for a change. I handed her my card and she shook her head at me.
“I’m sorry, ” she said. “You have Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. We only accept Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina.”
“Wait,” I replied, “You mean to tell me that I cannot use my Massachusetts based health insurance company in Massachusetts? Where WE ARE?” At that point I had to leave because I was so pissed off. It was obviously not the nurse’s fault so I didn’t want to take it out on her but… Why am I paying so much money for insurance that I can’t use for a simple shot? Who the hell lives in MA and has insurance from NC? And why specifically NC? Am I nuts? If everyone out there has insurance from NC please tell me. WTF.
For those who groan about geography questions… September 4, 2007
Posted by triviaguy in Rants, Trivia, cartography.2 comments
From Global Politician :
Americans treat geography as a spelling bee–trivia to be memorized and repeated on demand with no analytical power. The key question of Why are things where they are? remains unasked. Knowing geographical facts such as that the Himalayas and Andes are the highest mountain chains in the world contributes no understanding of plate tectonics and the resultant effects on climate, and the impact on human settlement for the people who live on opposite sides of these great mountains. The reluctance to incorporate and classify many facts into relevant explanatory factors contributes to the naive and wholly wrong idea that geography cannot be a science because it deals only with “unique” places.
There is, however, another level of geographic knowledge which is particularly rewarding but seldom communicated to the average pupil–places are not only different, they are similar: It is not by chance that the coasts of Norway and Chile in opposite hemispheres but similar latitudes resemble each other with deep fjords and beautiful glaciers, or that rent, property value and intensity of land use decline from the city center towards the periphery all over the world.
Nothing can be understood apart from the place where it occurs. No event, situation, problem in nature or human history has much meaning until it is examined against its geographical background. Geography studies the location, extent, distribution, frequency and interaction of all significant elements of the human and physical environment on the earth’s surface.
Geography is important! Don’t end up like Miss Teen South Carolina!
Diamonds are for… A finite amount of time? December 13, 2006
Posted by triviaguy in Rants.add a comment
I really hate those De Beers commercials and jewelry store commercials that come out between Thanksgiving and Valentines Day. You know the ones I’m talking about… They tell men that, “The only way that you can REALLY show her that you love her is to buy a really big diamond” and the ones that tell her, “Unless he has spent 1/8 of his salary on a diamond, how do you really know he loves you?” They are CRAP. There is seriously one out there now that says: “Stop telling her that you love her and show her. By buying a diamond. Actions speak louder than words.” What?! Yes it’s true that action speak louder than words, but what about actions like cleaning dishes, picking up dry cleaning, listening to her vent about work, changning the oil in her car, or waking her up with spontaneous oral sex? Those seem to say I love you more than giving her a hunk of carbon. Anyhow, there is not proof that everyone at De Beers is a lying sack of shit. The Atlantic Monthly has published an article that uncovers the true value of diamonds… and it ain’t much. Turns out that over the past 1.5 centuries, huge diamond mine have been discovered and then hidden to conrol the supply. But eventually, when it’s all mined and in the market, diamonds will be no more valuable than other common, semi-precious stones.
Now, I’m not a monster. I didn’t send this to any of my newly engaged female friends… or my friend who just spent his life-savings on a diamond for his new fiance. That would be cruel. But I do want to spread this information to everyone else. Stop spending butt-loads of money on something that will lose its value!
I am also aware that someday when I want to propose to someone, I’ll probably have to spend a bunch of money on a diamond too… “I want to spend the rest of my life with you but only if you recognize that the value of diamonds is artificially inflated” doesn’t sound very romantic. Damn you De Beers!
