Although I am quite busy these days with work and my various hobbies, I ended up putting up a new Amazon store site. I am not much of a gamer but I do buy lots of games and as luck would have it I got stuck with a domain that a customer of mine did not pay me for. The end result is GamersZone.org, which is now a pretty good site to browse for all sorts of console games. Amazon commissions won’t make me rich any time soon, but like I said, I paid for this domain, so I might as well do something with it.

Personally, I am leaning towards getting a Nintendo Wii soon, but I have to admit that the PS3 is very tempting given the Blue Ray player. My kids have about three Nintendo GameBoys, a PS2, and a GameCube which they all play all the time.

Here’s to good gaming and sore thumbs.

Yesterday, ABCNews reported on a school district in Georgia going entirely to single-sex public schools. The move is being done supposedly to improve test scores and to prevent teen pregnancy. The decision has some parents upset, because they feel they had no choice in the matter. Putting stereo types aside, separating kids by gender does not help girls, it only helps them to fail. You can argue all you want about how boys are disruptive, or how girls are supposedly bad at math (something which is a stereo type in this country only!), but the truth is that this school district is running away from its problems instead of facing them head on. You do not combat teen pregnancy by putting girls in another school, you combat it by educating young people on the consequences of sex and how they can practice safe sex. This decision by adults, teaches boys that they do not have to compete with girls. Over time, the impact of this decision will be felt in the workplace, not in the school.

Every day I witness the problems of gender in the work place. Men find it difficult to communicate with women. There is an uneasiness in their interactions. Imagine if I had to work with an entire group of men who never competed with girls in school? The end result would be that women would be excluded from the major decisions and their salaries would end up reflecting that as well, or the exact opposite, which is that in order for women to be successful they would have to work three times as hard as the average male. Then there is the problem of men working for a female boss who is successful, most of these men would complain for one reason or another.

We do not need to reinvent the wheel. The economic history of this country shows that we are financially better off since women entered the workplace. As a country we compete better with women in the workforce, so why would this not be true in the classroom? I believe separating kids is sending the wrong message and letting adults off the hook for not facing up to their own responsibilities.

Do you agree that in the short term, protectionism can be benefecial as it holds jobs and wages steady but in the long run can be ineffecient and wasteful if others are willing to do the same job for less but in another country? A government has to be very wealthy to afford protectionism for very long. Otherwise prices and wages remain high as a country stagnates.

With globalism, people are forced to be competitive in pricing and may lose their job or high wages but will eventually find something where they can compete with the rest of world on an equal basis. If governments and unions push for high wages and excellent benefits, those industries will not be competitive on a global basis and will only be able to compete within that country if tariffs are also placed on imported products. GM and Ford are only surviving because of American consumer loyalty which continues to erode as their products just don’t match up to foreign competitors. GM and Ford will need to build cars outside of the US if they truly want to compete and regain market share.

The computer industry may go the way of India as prices are much cheaper there as well. China has the edge on low tech products.

Where will the US compete globally in the 21st century? Likely in real estate and banking and in medical research and even agriculture but we may struggle in other areas.

Why do humans have so many addictions? We have addictions to Hollywood gossip, drugs, alcohol, prescription drugs, sugar, fatty foods, laziness, sleep, caffeine, nicotine, sports, movies, pets, relationships, sex, etc. It seems we want to have those feel-good feelings but many of our addictions also have side effects or a downside as well.