Another long day

Today in class we discussed the qualities of an ideal work group for our class, as the title of the class is Group Dynamics. Apparently the goal of the class is to teach us to work in teams, which are distinctly different in practice from groups.

In Managerial Economics we had a simulation of how the markets work in the sale and purchase of various goods. And also how the market is affected by outside influences in the forms of taxes, government regulation of prices, foreign demand of goods, and foreign production of goods. Most often the market – free of government controls – gave the best profits and benefits to both buyers and sellers in this game. I also came in second place for the most profit made buying and selling, even though various regulations killed my performance in various rounds as I couldn’t either buy or sell my good at a profit. It was a fun exercise.

In Political Ideology class we discussed Classical Liberalism, which would be considered more conservative than most Conservatives today, which is a far cry from those who favor Modern Liberalism today. It was a pretty boring class and I almost fell asleep while drinking my Coke, which would have been really bad if I did fall asleep and spilled it on myself. I also managed to acquire an mp3 player in that class that was dropped by another student. I’m pretty sure its an Apple mp3 player, and I’m also pretty sure that it belongs to a guy in my discussion group so I’ll give it back to him on Monday if it is his. If its not his I’d like to sell it on eBay and buy a better one with the money while pocketing the rest.

I’ve also been slacking very much in my running of late and have got really out of shape. I cannot realistically run these days outside as I have no free time during daylight hours. Hence I’m restricted to running on the treadmill at night, which is not the same as I cannot use full strides; so its more of a jog than a run. Given that case I’m making it a goal to jog for a set time and speed every day, with each day increasing either the time or the speed. Today I jogged for 15 minutes at 6.2 miles per hour. Given that I’m probably getting sick at the moment and am out of shape that took much more effort than I anticipated. Tomorrow I will most likely add time to that. I’m also making it a goal to log all of my running here everyday so that everyone in the world (or at least the 4 people who read this blog semi-regularly) will know when I’m slacking.

That is all. No interesting quote comes to mind.

I'm Still Alive

Yep, I managed to survive my cruise. I’ve been fairly busy over the last few weeks, even if though it really doesn’t feel like I’ve done very much. School starts in 4 weeks and I think I’m looking forward to it, even if it will be a new experience at a new school. I haven’t been reading much but I’ve been increasing my running/jogging lately.
The new press at work still isn’t up and running yet, even though they’ve now had it for almost 2 months. Work is slow but interesting as I do tons of random stuff that’s completely unrelated to actual print shop work. I’ve been building cabinets, sealing roofs, and working on the boss’s other random projects around the shop. I’ll shoot to have at least one new post up later this week. Maybe I’ll binge blog and write up 10 posts or something and then just release them every day until I’m out of them and then my few readers will have to wait weeks again for the next update as usual.

Movie Ratings

The MPAA ticked a bunch more people off this past week when they reviewed the movie Transformers. It seems that they did not like the heavy amount of violence in the movie, so they gave it an R rating. The director did not want an R nor did he want to re-cut the movie in order to get his desired PG-13, so he did the next best thing. He called executive producer Steven Spielberg to have him talk to the ratings board. Spielberg talked to the ratings board who then reconsidered their decision and gave the movie a PG-13 rating. So without doing anything but getting a famous guy to ask nicely, a movie that is rated to be R is now rated PG13.

I mentioned this to someone and they started throwing a fit. He’s threatening to write to Congress to have them step in and intervene. Should they? Absolutely not! The MPAA is a private organization that follows its own created standards. Movie ratings (G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17) are registered trademarks of the MPAA and cannot be used without permission. In order to use one of their ratings you have to pay a huge fee, submit a copy of your movie to them; then they will give you whatever rating they your movie deserves. Unless you are really rich, powerful, and famous you are stuck with whatever rating they give you unless you alter the movie and resubmit it and pay another fee in hopes that the new cut will get your desired rating.

Realistically movie ratings are little more than marketing tools. Movies are one of the few forms of media left that do not require ratings by the Federal Government. TV shows must be rated, CDs must carry Parental Advisory stickers if they contain foul lyrics, and radio has to conform to decency standards set forth by the FCC. As movies are generally shown in privately owned theaters, or watched in private homes they do not fit under any government control. The large movie chains have signed monopolistic contracts with the MPAA stating that they will not show a movie on their screens that does not have an MPAA rating. This is one of the few reasons that movie makers get their movies rated at all, to get them into the large theater chains. If you go to a store that sells DVDs you can generally find tons of movies that aren’t rated. Most videos that were never shown in the theater are not rated because it’s expensive to get a rating. Many DVDs that were shown in the theater aren’t rated in the stores because they re-cut the movie to get the desired rating for the theaters, but are selling the original cut on disc, of which they did not accept the MPAA rating.

The MPAA can give any movie any rating for any reason if they so desire. They have guidelines for what would constitute a particular rating but it isn’t strictly followed. For the most part they are consistent in their decisions but there are exceptions to every rule. You can find swearing in a G movie, full frontal nudity in a PG movie, graphic acts of violence and/or sex in a PG-13 movie, and just about anything in an R movie. I’ve seen PG movies that I wouldn’t want my baby sisters to see; I’ve seen R movies that I would have no problem letting them see. I’ve seen too few NC-17 movies to see much of a trend there but I wouldn’t buy most of the ones I’ve seen.

Rant over. I’ve filled my quick break from homework. Now time to get back to my union essay due on Monday.

We'd Still Have Snow if it wasn't for Global Warming

The snow finally melted. This is the first time in my life that snow has remained on the ground in Seattle for 10 days straight. Today the rain melted the remainder.
   On a related note, the Weather Channel has a show dedicated exclusively to "global warming" where the host, Heidi Cullen, now argues and any meteorologist or climatologist who denies human pollution as the cause of global warming should be stripped of their credentials by the American Meteorological Society. Obviously the planet has never warmed up before and we would still be living in an ice age if humans hadn't started burning things, releasing environmentally harmful gases into the atmosphere.
I still don't know a group more dogmatic than mainstream scientists. If a scientist proposes an alternate theory to anything mainstream, that still fits in with all data available, it most likely will not be published in any journals because it is different. For example, New Scientist had an article claiming that the only reason that the Big Bang is the predominant theory in cosmology is because no one is willing to fund the research of scientists who argue otherwise.
   On an unrelated topic, Congress is trying to raise the minimum wage in a few parts of the country, except in territories where Pelosi's constituents have large manufacturing facilities.
   I guess that's it for my random update.

Random Quote of the Moment:
   Yeah, well what you plan and what takes place ain't ever exactly been similar.
      -Jayne in Serenity

*EDIT*
I lied, there's still some ice and snow around here, the warmish rain hasn't melted it all quite yet.