Tidbit Tuesday

iPad

I love my iPad. This device is the best invention for reading and learning languages since the printing press. As a netbook, the iPad gets you away from the PC and the office chair. The iPad is so portable, yet is very easy to use for typing messages, checking email, and looking at web sites. The iPod function plays music or book CDs or foreign language dialogues. Except for more intensive business work and writing this blog, I almost don't need a PC any more.

The iPad can sit right next to you on a side table or footstool as you read. Then when you come to a $10 word, you can find its meaning with a few taps of the finger with the Dictionary.com app so fast the thought in the book stays in your mind and the word fits right into it. That makes learning and remembering multiples more effective and efficient.

The same applies to foreign language work. Gone is the drudgery and distraction of looking up new vocabulary in the paper dictionary. One can do verb exercises in German or Italian and get the new words almost instantly. This increases your speed many multiples. And by getting the meanings right away, again the distraction and loss of the double E's (effectiveness and efficiency) dissipates: the thoughts can stay in your mind, making you learn faster.

The iPad is almost like a brain implanted dictionary for many languages; it's a 23rd century sci fi dictionary ! If you like to read sophisticated books or learn languages, get an iPad.

Hogs Squealing

The CEO hogs have raised their snouts from the trough long enough to squeal at the new disclosure law for their pay. The recent financial reform law requires corporations to disclose the ratio of CEO pay to the pay of the average employee. According to today's FT, they are screeching that it's a logistical nightmare ? Really ?

Take CEO pay as numerator (N). For denominator, take ratio (D) of payroll to # of employees. Compute N/D. Gosh, that's hard, isn't it ! [Btw, if needed, normalize # of employees by hours worked to a standard 40 hour week.]

What a bunch of liars ! They are using sophistry to try to get out of this. They know the numbers are going to be ugly. Bring it on, I say ! Most CEOs are grossly overpaid hogs at the corporate trough.

Not All Good Ideas are Invented in the USA

It's a simple fact - undeniable - that the unemployment rate in Germany is much less than in the US. German unemployment is about 7.5% and US unemployment is about 9.5%. This is a FACT despite German unions, German national health benefits and the huge number of US part time workers. Thus all the usual canards touted by the Libertarian boomers are wrong by counterexample.

We need to examine the labor, education and health care systems in Germany to see if we can learn from them. Only a fool or a knave would not look hard at this situation as a social experiment in progress. We must learn. IF the USA is to be truly the flexible place we want it to be, let's see what we can learn from the Germans. Think and look outside the box - that's not just a slogan. Do it.

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Word of the Day

"Desuetude" - noun [$10]
Desuetude means discontinuance from use or exercise.
Sentence: Let's not let the collective public mind continue to wither from desuetude. Engage in the Great Debate with logical vigor !