Archive
Alain de Botton: A kinder, gentler philosophy of success
There’s something many of us are missing when we judge success, when we make ourselves goals, and when we put too much emphasis on “I”. Here’s an interesting and well explained take on measuring success by Alain de Botton.
Think about our environment
Today, the world of bloggers unite to reflect on our environmental issues. Here’s a key statistic to think about:
- A World Bank report estimates that 760,000 people die prematurely each year in China due to air and water pollution
(photo by U.S. Forest Service)
Instead of focusing in all those bad things we already know about being careless with our environment, here are the resources you need to improve current conditions:
Are we broke? Conference with U.S. Comptroller General D. M. Walker
Today I was at a conference where U.S. Comptroller General Walker spoke about the trends in our economy for the next ten to thirty years. I’d like to share a few points he brought up, in hopes that we build more consciousness in our future:
“The United States’ economy is not as strong as advertised… We are headed to very rough seas.”
“Key national indicators put the U.S. at 16 out of 28 countries… 23 out of 30 in life expectancy.”
“[At current trends] the U.S. Medicare will run out of money in 2019” (in 2007 we just began a deficit in Medicare)
“U.S. is number 1 in obesity” – At least we are first in something!
Wake up America! It’s time to go to work. For more information, read the report 21st Century Challenges by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
Domain Name Story on Fox News and CNN
The woman was certainly not a domain expert, but it goes to show that domain names are getting some attention in the general population.
CNN Story:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/biztech/07/23/domain.name.dealing.ap/index.html
Florida afternoon
I just returned from a trip in the southeastern states
Online Status Availability
Thank you all for visiting my site and using the Meebo widget to communicate with me. There have been many times I missed you, despite appearing online. If you have any questions and don’t get an immediate response from me, it is probable that I forgot to sign off.
Feel free to send me an email and I will respond shortly.
i [at] rafaelsosa.com
Living in the air
I’ve been unreachable for some time due to a lot of traveling lately. I’ll post very soon and respond to the comments.
In the meantime, if you are founding a tech company, as I am, I recommend reading Founders at Work.
Thanks.
Canadian Coin
Perhaps, cost of living has risen to the point where you can’t just go out with a few bills. Perhaps those paper bills don’t provide much security anymore. So now, the Royal Canadian Mint has created a coin that you might want to hold on to. This coin can’t buy you a phone call from a public pay phone, nor can it buy you soft drink at an automatic vending machine, but it can probably buy you that new Ferrari Enzo you had been dreaming about and still get back some change. Yes, the coin is worth a cool 1 million Canadian dollars. Want one? You can buy it online 🙂 http://www.mint.ca
The REAL Free Credit Report
The advertisements are everywhere, get your free credit report at “FreeCreditReport.com” They even have a nice catchy song to it. In reality, this site is a business, and you will be charged nearly $80 if you don’t cancel a subscription that you are automatically enrolled in.
The good news, is that US citizens, by law, have the right to request a Credit report from all three major credit agencies – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. The US Congress modified a law requiring all three credit agencies to supply an annual report to whomever requested it. The law is the Fair Credit Reporting Act. (FCRA). Thus, you are entitled to 1 free report per year, for each of the three credit agencies.
In order to comply, an official website to request your credit was built. The official site is AnnualCreditReport.com. Therefore, if you are planning on obtaining your free annual credit report, that is the official place to do it. This is the only official website. To confirm the veracity of this information and to check other ways of requesting your free credit reports, you can go directly to the Federal Trade Commission website at: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/freereports.shtm
New Rule: Stop talking old prices without mentioning present value
Frequently, people talking about important persons in history mention what the salaries in their times used to be. The problem lies when they insinuate on such a low number. Get over it and crunch some numbers. A poor man making $70 a week back in 1932 wasn’t financially poor. He was earning $1125.00 per week on our 2007 standards. That’s a comfortable $60,000 a year salary.
The best way to get this value is to use the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis’ Consumer Price Index (CPI) Calculator. Plug in the numbers, and they tell you the dollar worth in present terms.
Rafael Sosa's Weblog 