Last GU Hoyas game and I finally got it

Okay….so I know this is probably obvious for those who are really into Basketball, but I never really paid attention until tonight.

Want to be number 99?

Perhaps we were ahead by enough that my mind wandered a bit more than usual, but I realized tonight that none of the players had a number that could not be represented on both hands at the same time. Basically the tens could not be more than 5, nor can the 1’s. The following are valid numbers for players. Even if you are the most famous player, you don’t get to make an exception.

How many valid basketball player numbers are there?

Perhaps a question for “Are you smarter than a 5th grader.”

Here they are 0 or 00, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 30, 31,32, 33, 34, 35, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55.

Who cares?

Right..not nearly as important as Georgetown WINNING tonight! Down with Notre Dame!

Thank You

Seniors….Jason Clark and Henry Simms!

2012-02-262021-01-26

Cool NASA Facts….

Amazing who you meet….

So the other day I have the privilege to speak with someone who worked for NASA. We talked about a lot, I attended Space Camp and love the idea of Space exploration. Here are some cool facts…

The Space Shuttle can both take off and land unattended. This would allow the use when inspection reveals some potential flaws which may cause an accident. With that said, in order to save costs until a new space vehicle has been produced, may spend less time getting the shuttle cleaned up and simply launch it unmanned with the eventual destruction of the aging fleet. The only problem with this…..the Smithsonian is supposed to get one 🙂
The American Flag on the Moon is plastic! I guess it should be expected since there is 1/6 gravity on the Moon. I used to think that since there was not any gravity and therefore by “molding” the flag, it would just stay that way.
The blast off of the lunar lander likely knocked the flag down. This being said, the first person to commercially visit the moon will likely swipe the flag.

2012-02-262021-01-26

Good thing bikes don’t have cruise control

Below is a recount of my ride home from the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum this afternoon.

3:15 pm

Left the museum to take my normally uneventful commute home from my day of volunteering.

3:20 pm

Watched as a Pedicab goes through a red light on Pennsylvania Ave. I was hoping he was not “hired,” but unfortunately there was a family in the back. Why risk the lives of others, let alone your life!

3:22 pm

Almost hit a pedestrian who was walking down the center of the Pennsylvania bike lane texting as he walked. Honestly! Did he think it was a sidewalk? Maybe want to be paying a bit of attention if you are in the middle of the road?

3:24 pm

Still on Pennsylvania Avenue….might have been hit had I not been paying attention and noticed a car making an illegal U-Turn.

3:35 pm

Near the end of the 15th street cycletrack, concierge hails a cab for some guests, but they don’t even look before they walk in front of me to get in the cab.

3:45 pm

At 15th and P Streets NW, pedestrians hail a cab and the taxi pulls over blocking the bike lane to load luggage and passengers.

Conclusion

I have concluded that if cyclists were in some way distracted, there would be many more collisions with pedestrians and vehicles. Inventors, please don’t make a 4 wheel bike or cruise control. LOL.

2012-02-222021-02-05

Did you see Nightline last night?

Wow…am I lucky!

After watching the Nightline episode last night, one has to wonder, how much would it “really” cost for an iPhone if the workers were paid more than $2 an hour! Average wage earned is $427 a month or $14 a day. The Nightline report mentioned that for $17 a month you can live close by in a 8 person bunk-bed room. While not looking very nice, they apparently are much nicer than the homes those workers came from. Workers also have the opportunity to take education classes and have a soccer field nearby.

More than 1 million workers

MacRumors in a discussion reports that Foxconn employs over 1 million workers of which about 10,000 are on the production lines for Apple. Productivity is very high as the units produced each day are impressive to me, but if you were to increase wages to $8 an hour, a 75% increase, working 40 hours each week, that would be an increase in labor cost of 12.5 Billion US dollars. It probably would not drive “retail” prices up 75%, but I certainly would think it would cost us a few more pennies.

Should we be paying 50% more?

According to The Atlantic it would cost more than $1100 to buy an iPad 2. That is close to double the cost.

US Poverty??

It does make you think more about poverty level globally. In the US, if you are living alone making less than $10,890 you are below poverty level. It is good we have assistance programs in place to provide food since a box of healthy cereal costs you $5 these days! Granted we are quite materialistic in this country, so maybe you can live on a very little amount in other countries, but for the wages paid, it would be impossible for any worker to actually own the product they are making!

Miss the report?

Watch the episode online here: ABC Nightline Video Archives

Wrap-up

So most consumers would probably not like paying twice as much for our imports, but seriously, after seeing that report it makes me wonder any way if I really need everything I buy. Sure I single handedly cannot help those workers in other countries, but together I would think we could all make a difference.

There really is a dilemma here…should we push to have all manufacturing and assembly happen in the US and only buy American? Do we lobby for better wages in foreign nations? Either way, people will lose jobs. Sure more will be created elsewhere, but for those currently working for $2 an hour, a mandated wage increase for them could mean a factory relocation or layoffs if another supplier is able to produce products for even just a penny less.

This has probably been my most passionate and heartfelt post ever and I hope that it can help in some way.