Once the USA was known as the land of opportunity. Even though there is now plenty of opportunity to be had in the US, we are far from rich in it. Opportunity does not knock as often as it used to. It seems to be reserved for those elite and lucky few. Why are they the ones that get the luck. The answer to that question is simple. There is not much luck associated with opportunity. Opportunity comes to those that are prepared to receive it. How does one become prepared? That answer is also very simple; they have enough knowledge to recognize opportunity when it knocks. They have been inviting it to knock, and have predicted its arrival. That seems like a smart person. They are. They have been trained. Unfortunately their training was not likely by the public education system of the USA. Why, because the USA does not have a forward thinking high performance motivated system of education. We pay our taxes to support a system the destroys ambition. It doesn’t reward performance, or talent. We pay for a system that is based on the lowest common denominator. Everything operates only to the level that is absolutely has to.

You might be wondering what I mean when I refer to to the lowest common denominator. It is a math term that means that every part of the equation is converted to and compared against the lowest number that fits all the numbers in the equation. Then the equation is solved by that one number representing the denominator for all the other numbers.  That works great in math, but is very bad for people. People cannot be compared. They cannot be made equal. They cannot be reduced to a mathematical formula (I know that some mathematicians will argue with me on that point). For some reason, our school system thinks that they can reduce us, and group us, and that will tap our potential. Perhaps they really don’t think that, but are restricted to believing that students can’t be treated any other way because of lack of money. Whatever they think, they are wrong. Every year this truth is proven by the test scores of our children. We are falling behind as a nation. Soon the rest of the world will be smarter than us, and we will no longer lead, but follow. Possibly from way behind the pack. This is inevitable if we don’t change. We must change the way the school systems operate.  We have to make major leaps in our educational structure. We have to evolve or we die.

First thing to purge is laziness.  There is no reward in our system for great performance. I pay the terrible teachers in my community just like I pay the great ones. Sometimes I pay the terrible ones more. Now that is ridiculous. I want my kids to have the best teachers, yet I am paying to keep the worst ones. Why, because they have tenure; some are union. These are all excuses to give lazy incapable men a good job that rightfully belongs to someone else. I pay for it, my kids pay for it, the country will pay (has been paying) for this mistake.  If someone sucks at their job, FIRE THEM. That way the remaining workers can get properly compensated for their work. Why then does the education system put up with this? It is because the administrative staff is not compensated on how good the staff is. As long as they meet the testing standard (the lowest score that is acceptable) then everything must be going well. Why can’t we have incentive to be the best we can be, not the worst we can get away with? How has the public put up with this waste of resources for so long? It boggles my mind.

We are wasteful. That is easy to see in the school system. If it were a business, it would not turn a profit. Some would say that public education isn’t capable of turning a profit. I beg to differ. That is like saying that the man who walks a race because he races the track alone is incapable of running. If there is no one to push and compete against, then it is natural for man to take the easiest way. The way that achieves all the goals set with the least effort.  No one can win, because no one can fail. It might sound like a good idea to not allow anyone to fail. But when no one fails then no one can win and we all loose. We all fail equally. That is not a good position for a world leading nation to be in.

We need competition in the education system. We need something to push public education to higher achievement. Something that will make educators work to push their facilities to the limits to stay in the race. Something that will breed innovation, thrift, and quality. We need a free market education system. A system that will push the administrators to perform at their highest capacities, much, much higher than the lowest acceptable results. They will not be running alone, so if they walk the race, they will lose.  The free market system is what has made this country great. It is the next evolution in public education. The answer to all the questions on how to implement a free market system and still give every student an equal chance are many and they are difficult. However, we have very intelligent people in this country. We can figure it out. So first, we have to create a free market education system.

Next we need to address the fact that the fundamentals of education haven’t really changed in 200-300 years. We are, for some unknown reason, still stuck with the teachers available to us in the geographical area in which we live. We still sit in classrooms. This is very inefficient. I really didn’t like any of the available economics teachers at my high school. I could have been taking much more advanced math in grade school. My community is a farm community. So they don’t stress that kind of thing. How is that an equal chance at education? If I had lived in Las Vegas instead, I would have had the opportunity to attend a high school that specialized in technology, or medicine, or many other subjects. Why do they deserve more than me? Why couldn’t I learn from their teachers? There is no good reason why. The Internet makes all these requests possible. I shouldn’t be stuck with mediocre teachers when there are great teachers out there. Distance learning. It is the new rave. OK, not new. The television has been wide spread since the 50’s. The school system has largely ignored its usefulness because that would mean change. And change is hard. And education takes the easier road because it can. With the Internet, a teacher in Nevada could teach me about computers. One in California could teach me English, and one in Idaho could teach me math. They would be the teacher that I learn from the best. Why, because I used a personality database to find them. We do it with dating, why not with educating?! This would also allow us to use highly specialized people to teach, and less specialized people to tutor and grade. Now that is efficiency. Great people would want to teach because they are compensated properly for their skill. If no one signs up for their classes, they are not paid.  People would have to learn to educate well to be a teacher.

This method might also alleviate the overcrowding is the schools. Internet education can be done at home, or in smaller groups at distance learning centers, or libraries.  I see the classroom of the future being something that is more virtual. The students can interact with other students virtually. They do it on their cell phones already whether we want them to or not. We should harness this firm grip on technology to enable them to learn more. Why do we fight trends like this. We should ride the wave. They are showing us the way, and we ignore them. We even punish them for it. BAD ADULTS! They are smarter than we are. Lets let them show us how to unlock their potential.

This all sounds great perhaps for the future. Not now. It is too risky now. Many would argue that this kind of mass change could collapse our system and make it irreparable. This is true. There is the chance of that happening. Many people do not like change, and will resist it at all costs. Even at the cost of their own education or that of their children. The answer to this problem is so simple that we refuse to see it. We have to make changes now that are so small it won’t threaten the nay sayers.

A few things that we could change right away without much difficulty is to offer some classes on line at the high school level. Parts of the country are already doing this. Almost every university has mature programs already established. This would not be something new, we would simply be solidifying an already accepted standard. This might give the poor a disadvantage, as they might not have computers, or high speed internet. That is where the community library can help.

Soon, however, the libraries will become over crowded. All those student wanting to learn the new way, the way they understand. The libraries will scream for higher budgets. We can give it to them. By that time, we should be able to offer half the classes held out of school, and half in school. So now only about half the kids will actually be in classrooms at one time,. This means that the community can avoid building that new high school after all. That should free up a few million for the library computer rooms.

Soon, all the teachers and students will be used to this kind of an interface. The time will come when it will be natural for the students to want to take classes from teachers that teach in other schools. The teachers will have learned how to be more efficient with the technology, and a new type of classroom will be born. Students will learn from teachers that they have never seen in person. Knowledge will freely flow from across the globe. They will have the opportunities that were until that time reserved for the children of only the very wealthy. They can virtually travel to New York and learn there. Then off to Florida to learn there. Then to California to learn. Eventually to Paris, and London, and … well you get the picture. We do the same thing on the internet every day. Our children traverse the internet much better than we do. Lets let them use their skills to their great advantage.

One day the littlest knight heard about a fierce fire breathing dragon named Dave. Dave was the most feared of all the fire breathing dragons in all the land. No one ever dared get near Dave because they might not ever come back alive. The Littlest Knight and Stan decided that they would go fight Dave and rid the land of such a hideous and scary beast. But when they came close to the lair of Dave they heard crying.

The Littlest Knight sneaked into Dave’s cave to see who was crying. It was Dave who was crying! Dragons are so loud when they cry. The Littlest Knight could see Dave laying on a big pile of junk and the cave smelled really bad. The Littlest Knight had to plug his nose to even get any closer. He came up to Dave and asked him why he was crying. Dave cried “Because nobody likes me. They all run away from me and call me names. Boo hoo hoo hoo” Dave sniffled just a little bit. When dragons sniffle it is loud.

It was easy to see why nobody liked Dave. He smelled bad and his cave was a mess! The littlest knight suggested that if Dave wanted friends, first he had to keep his room clean so they could come and visit. Dave thought this might help, so he started to clean his cave. The cave was really really really messy, so the Littlest Knight and Stan helped clean it. There was so much junk in the room, but some of it was really cool. Dave had a TV and games too. They also found a really fun football, and base ball bat, and baseball gloves.  They also found lots of legos and fun puzzles and all sorts of fun stuff. When they were done, the pile of junk was gone. But Dave still smelled really bad. Stan suggested that Dave take a bath in the river. Dave thought that was a good idea too, so he did. Dragons splash a lot when they take baths. When he was done, he smiled because he was so clean. But when Dave smiled, the Littlest Knight could smell his gross breath from clear across the room. Dave wasn’t a mean fire breathing dragon, his breath just smelled really really really bad. So they all brushed their teeth. When the were done, Dave’s breath didn’t smell, his cave was clean, and Dave looked hansom.

Soon everyone in the kingdom found out that Dave had such a nice cave and that he didn’t breath fire, or have bad breath. Soon every one wanted to be Dave’s friend. Dave was happy.

When the Littlest Knight got home, he remembered how important keeping his room clean, taking baths, and brushing his teeth is. So he cleaned his room, took a bath, and brushed his teeth. Then he happily went to bed and dreamed of the great adventures that he would have tomorrow.

• ALL-CRAFT Storage Technologies for Methane Extracted from Landfills
• Corncobs Store Gas for Natural Gas Vehicles
• Adsorbed Natural Gas Tank ‘Holds Promise’ for Future

Now this is not all the suff that I have read on the subject. But this is a good starting point for anyone that wants to learn more. I am going to try to make one of these tanks myself, I just need the patent that they have appied for. That should give me enough info to try to make one. I have the container, I have the corn stalk, and I have intellegence to do it. I have natural gas at my home at only 1.5 psi, but I can compress it up to 500 psi. I will keep you all informed on my progress.

A Knight’s best friend

In a kingdom in a distant land lived The Littlest Knight. He liked to roam the kingdom and look at all the houses and people and he loved to stop and enjoy a good grassy field to play in. He especially loved grass because he had a horse, and horsed LOVE to eat grass. His horse’s name was Stan. Stan was the whitest horse in all the kingdom; except for that one day they both got grass stains on their knees from wrestling in the grass.
The Littlest Knight and Stan always did everything together. They would:
Raid castles together
Fight fire breathing dragons together
Rescue princesses together (They always had to rescue princesses because princesses are always get themselves in trouble).
One day right after saving a princess from a fierce Dragon named Dave, The Littlest Knight and Stan ran into some friends.
“I just fought a fire breathing Dragon!” proclaimed The Littlest Knight. He told their friends how fearsome of a battle it was and how he saved the princess. However he never mentioned Stan, or what Stan did to help. In fact, he told them Stan didn’t do anything. That just wasn’t true, and it hurt Stan’s feelings really bad.
The knight was a proud knight and wouldn’t apologize to Stan for telling lies about him and leaving him out of the stories he told the other kids. Stan was very sad. He told The Littlest Knight that they couldn’t be friends until The Littlest Knight could say he was sorry and told everyone the truth.
The knight still wouldn’t apologize and told Stan that he would just go do everything by himself then!
So he set off to do the usual things. But when he tried to raid raid a castle, he didn’t have a horse to charge the front gate with. So he couldn’t raid a castle by himself. And when he tried to fight a dragon, he just wasn’t tall enough because he wasn’t sitting on Stan’s back. So he couldn’t fight a dragon by himself. When he went to rescue a princess he couldn’t jump the mote that surrounded her tower. Stan always jumped the motes with him on his back. So the Littlest Knight couldn’t save a princess with out Stan.
Soon the knight realized that he missed Stan a lot and wanted to be friends again.
The Littlest Knight went and found Stan and told Stan that he was sorry for hurting his feelings and that he really did need him on all his adventures. He also told all the other kids how much Stan helped when they storm castles and fight dragons and rescue princesses. This made Stan feel very good. Stan was very good horse and loved his friend a lot, so he forgave the Littlest Knight quickly. They went on many more adventures together. The END.

A Restless Knight

In a kingdom in a distant land lived The Littlest Knight. This knight worked all day doing knightly things like cleaning his armor, practicing with his sword, helping old ladies cross the street, saving princesses (because princesses are always in trouble), fighting dragons, storming castles, visiting his mom and dad… He was a busy knight.
When nighttime came he was really tired. So he brushed his teeth., hung up his armor, got into his pajamas, and went to bed. There was only one problem. He couldn’t sleep. He just laid there with his eyes wide open. So he tried to make himself sleepy by forcing his eyes shut really tight, but that just made his eyelids hurt. So he tried counting dragons, but that just made him more excited. He even tried making himself sleepy by knitting a new helmet. But not even that worked. He still was not sleepy.
So he called for his dad, “DAAAAD!” he yelled. “I’m not sleepy.” He said with a frown. His dad was once a little knight, and knew exactly what little knights need when they are restless at bedtime.
So The Littlest Knight’s dad picked up a storybook and read to him a story about a knight that couldn’t sleep. By the time his dad was finished, The Littlest Knight was sound asleep in his bed. Good knight everyone.

What drives the price in economics?

People like to save money. A shirt for ten dollars is more likely to attract a buyer than the same shirt at twenty dollars. More people are willing to spend ten dollars on a shirt than twenty. That is what is called the demand curve. The higher the price, the fewer people will buy an item. The price at which the seller is willing to supply the shirt is considered the supply curve.

The higher the price the more the supplier makes on each sale, so of course they want to sell more items. That is shown in the fact that the supply (blue) line is an upward arch to the right. However, the higher the price, the less the consumer wants to buy. That is why the demand (red) line is a downward arch to the right. In the picture you can see that if the price where P1 then the supplier would be happy to supply a quantity of Q1 of the items. Because the demand curve (the red line) meets the supply curve (the blue line) at that point, the consumer would also be happy to buy all of the items that the supplier is willing to produce at that price. Using this model, if the supplier raised the price, then the consumer would by less of the item, not more. The only way for the supplier to make more money per item and still sell the same amount of items or more is if the demand shifts. More demand means that the supplier can get more money per each item. So to answer the question “What drives the price in economics?” It could be said that it is driven by demand, right? Well, mostly right.

Because almost everything has an alternative, if someone doesn’t like the price, they go buy something else that will satisfy the need they are having. But not everything has an alternative. A person can go find another shirt at a different store, but if that person needs a specific medicine for a specific disease, and only one drug company makes it, that person either buys it at the price the drug company sets, or goes without. Now if the drug is needed to stay alive the person is choosing between paying a price that they think is exorbitant or not to pay the price and die instead. Most people choose to pay, no matter what the cost. In that scenario, the supplier sets the price, not the demand. Also, note that can only happen if there is no other alternative solution.

To sum things up, in an open market (many suppliers with the same type of product) where there are alternatives to goods, the consumer sets the price. In a closed market (only one supplier with the good needed) where there are no alternatives means that the supplier sets the price. The best market for the general population is an open market. The best market for money hungry corporations is a closed market.

The Crude Oil and Energy Market

Lets find out what kind of market the Crude Oil companies are in. First lets look at the demand in the market. in 1999 when a gallon of gasoline was an average of $1.58 nationally, the US consumed 19, 520,000 barrels per day of crude oil. In 2007, 8 years later, the US demand had shifted to 20,730,000 barrels per day. This represents a 6% change in demand. The price is a different story however. In 1999 it was $1.58 average nationally. In June of 2007 the average price was on a decline from previous months at roughly $3.00 per gallon (all prices are for regular unless otherwise noted). This represents an 89.8% increase in price. In June of 2008 the price reached over $4 per gallon at the pump. That represents a price increase of 33.3% from 2007. Was there more demand for more oil that caused this increase? No, the demand has fallen some (reference needed) in the face of the higher prices.

This can mean only one thing about the crude oil market. It is closed. The people have to have it and there is only one supplier. Even though alternatives exist, they are not offered to the people that need them. So the US is a nation that is dependent on oil, and like monopoly, those that control the price of oil will continue to raise the price until the people cannot support the price anymore and decide to go without. That is how a closed market works. Pay the price or go without.

This may come as a shock to some, but the price of oil is not set directly by those that supply it. It is a commodity. Commodities prices are set by the perceived value and scarcity of the product by those that trade in the right to sell the commodity at certain prices. These trades are made in speculation on what the price of the good MIGHT do in the future. So a person thinks that oil will only continue to rise in price, so they place a contract to buy oil from a supplier at $140 per barrel for 10,000 barrels in two weeks time. That means that on the end of that contract that person could receive shipment of 10,000 barrels of oil and he would have to pay the supplier $1,400,000. However it other people think that oil will be worth more, they might start making contracts at $145 per barrel. So, on the day that the contract is executed for our person at $140, the price for new contracts is $145 per barrel. This would mean that that person could sell the contract for $145 per barrel (that is the going price) at at total of $1,450,000. That would mean that the trader made $50,000 just by speculating that oil prices will rise in the future. This can be a circle. One person thinks it will go up, so other think so too, so the price does go up simply because traders think it will. Then because it went up once, people think it is more likely to go up, so their renewed confidence in it will force it up again. And so on and so on. This is the world of commodity trading.

Does that mean that the people who use the product have no say. They do. If the product is not being retailed, then the people who really need the product will not by the speculators contracts for delivery. At some point the product must be delivered, or the contract is void. In the case of oil, the people HAVE to have it, so that means that they will pay what ever for it. So the refineries will continue to buy oil contracts no matter what the price. They just pass the extra costs on to the people who buy the gas or diesel.

So now it is plain to see that the price is set by one source, the commodity trading market. That translates into “we don’t care what happens to the people, just make money” from the speculators that are trading the oil commodity. This shows that commodity demand can make an impact on the price of oil. What happens if people think that the price will go up, and an oil company says “I will make a contract to sell 100,000,000 barrels at $5 below current market value. What would then happen to the market value? It would drop $5. Everyone would want that new price. This would only happen if there is an excess of oil not being delivered to refineries though. If you can’t sell your oil for market prices, then sell it cheaper. But if the companies decide that they will not pump enough oil to exceed demands, then there never is an excess. So the prices just soar with speculation. That is the situation the world is in right now. There is usually an answer for that problem. If oil companies are making lots of profit, then new oil companies should be able to start and make lots of profit too. Until there are so many companies trying to sell oil that not all of them can sell their oil. Then there is an excess and the price drops. The only problem is that the oil market is next to impossible to get into. New pumps just can’t be installed anywhere by anyone. Even it a person had unlimited funds, all the land that houses oil is already owned by other oil companies. So new startups can’t happen. It is a closed market. But it doesn’t have to be.

Here is another Nintendo song from Super Mario Bros. This one is played by one guy on two guitars. (can we say dexterity).

I just watched that one again. All I can say is holy crap!! This guy is an alien.

I am going to only link one video per post. That way I can comment on each one separately.

This is the Brazilian guitar soloist. Where do these people hide out? Shouldn’t they be rich and in some famous band or something??!?

They were all facing the wall and looked like they were gathering around for some kind of cult activity or something. So of course we had to get a picture with them.  Dorothy went a step further and decided to get a little fresh with one of them. He didn’t go home with her. I was too intimidating I guess.

The funny thing is that this was not all. I was shocked and amazed at the length people will go to sell clothes.  They had mannequin girls just standing there naked  in the center of the store. The were just hanging out, completely nude. Kinda like a shock factor.  It worked. I don’t remember much about the shopping trip, but I remember the Gap! At least all the mannequins were dressed in the kids section. That would have been truly disturbing.