Todd G. Simpson

Paul Starobin is a veteran international correspondent, who, as becomes apparent throughout the book, has an educated, experienced, and balanced opinion on the state of US. I picked up this book because of my sense of an undertone of pessimism about America that pervades a lot of discussions these days....and because ultimately I am hopeful that the US can recover from its current challenges. In summary, this book is an excellent read; it is precise, dense, comprehensive, and ultimately optimistic about the potential of the future.  That said, it is also realistic, and highlights several of my personal opinions on why the US could  be in trouble, namely: There is the aforementioned undercurrent of pessimism running through the country, based on the sustained issues with international policy, and the underlying causes of the financial meltdown. The US foreign policy of American Imperialism is seen as negative by large portions of the world; even portions that you would expect to

Nokia's CEO is courageous .  It is one thing to know that a company is in trouble, and another to really do something about it.  While it is almost certain that today's announcement will be a partnership with Microsoft, I wonder if that is the wrong choice.  While Windows 7 seems fine, it has no "sex appeal".   For $0 Nokia could have jumped to Android, and customized it as much as they wanted.  Because it was derived from Android, Nokia could have basked in the glow of that product.  Microsoft -- ho hum :-) Of course, maybe I am just wrong.  Google Trends shows more searches for Windows 7 (blue)....but more news for Android (red).

What next?  Here is a  confessional application from the Catholic Church. It would be great if Google and the Church could work together.  "I confess to amorous feelings" could be followed by a relevant ad ... especially now that Craigslist has been sanitized. I s ure hope we see so mething similar from The Flying Spaghetti Monster soon.   I would not want th e Pastafarian's to miss out on something this important.

Every once and while you just need a good laugh: here

There is an interesting dynamic emerging with Verizon's stated intention to throttle their top 5% of users: Verizon Wireless strives to provide customers the best experience when using our network, a shared resource among tens of millions of customers. To help achieve this, if you use an extraordinary amount of data and fall within the top 5% of Verizon Wireless data users we may reduce your data throughput speeds periodically for the remainder of your then current and immediately following billing cycle to ensure high quality network performance for other users at locations and times of peak demand. Our proactive management of the Verizon Wireless network is designed to ensure that the remaining 95% of data customers aren't negatively affected by the inordinate data consumption of just a few users. I would expect some push-back on the fact that Verizon will throttle a user for up to two months, even though users are on a monthly plan.   However, perhaps more interesting,

This is a great article on "everyday" statistics.  You have to read through nearly to the end to get to the "math" around money laundering: $0.53 on the $1.00 is the basic return ratio, according to this article, which is not too bad a return, all things considered.  More interesting are the statistical anomalies around multiple winners.  I always try to think of the low tech angle, and it strikes me that there may be a simpler way to increase your return:  simply buy known winning tickets (ones that are already scratched) from people at a premium that is better than the $0.53.   Seems too obvious....but I wonder if the FBI has checked Craigslist for ads offering to "buy winning lottery tickets at more than face value". http://www.lotterypost.com/news/227079/1940460 I have to do some searching for why this "single instance" algorithm works; it is not immediately obvious.