Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes — Mark J. Penn with E. Kinney Zalesne

You probably saw this book in my sidebar about a month ago.  It’s an interesting little read with a very useful table of contents that lets you jump around to the topics you’re interested in and skip the ones you don’t care for.  The book was published in 2007 so the information is relatively recent.  Here are some of the more interesting tidbits (I’ll skip the references for easier reading):

• 3 million American adults have turned online dates into a long-term relationship or marriage — that’s the same number of couples in America who say they met in church.
• On average, Americans work over 1,800 hours per year, substantially more than most workers around the world.  Although we get fewer vacation days per year than other Western countries, we let more than twice as many go unused.
• Since 1970, the number of women lawyers in America has grown 2,900%.
• Today in America, there are three times as many professional tanning parlors as there are Starbucks.
• 7 out of the 10 night-owl nations (large percentage of people go to sleep after midnight) are Asian.
• Noise reaches the potential for permanent damage at about 85 decibels. Hair dryers come in at 90. Noise on a subway platform is 105. In an airplane cabin, it’s 110. At a rock concert, it’s 120. Apparently nine seconds into a rock concert, you experience hearing loss.
• 63% of American households have pets.
• The percentage of split-ticket voters has gone up 42% since 1952.
• Between 1972 and 2004, the combined prison and jail population in the U.S. went from 330,000 to over 2 million.
• About 1.5 million children in the U.S. between the ages of 8 and 18 are vegetarians.
• The society with the largest proportion of centenarians in the world is the Japanese island of Okinawa.
• The typical vacation-home buyer earns just $71,000. The median income of investment-home-buyers is $85,700. The median purchase price of second homes is under $200,000. Second homes are a middle-class craze.
• More than 1 in 3 Americans aged 25-29 have a tattoo.
• The U.S. adult population as a whole is about 49% extroverted.  Surprisingly, nearly 60% of the most enthusiastic tech users are extroverted.
• About 40 million adults in the U.S. regularly visit Internet pornography sites.  That’s more than ten times the number of people who regularly watch baseball.
• The average video/computer game player is 33 years old.
• The average age at which Americans lose their virginity is 16.9.
• In Italy, a whopping 82 percent of men aged 18-30 are still living at home with their parents.

I came across these quotes written by Supreme Court Justice Simpson in Australia in my readings for class and he eloquently explains what I believe about people’s bad choices:

“Drug addicts do not come to their addiction from a social or environmental vacuum. This Court should not close its eyes to the multifarious circumstances of disadvantage and deprivation that frequently precede and precipitate a descent into illegal drug use.”

“Nor can I accept that the exercise of free choice in the use of drugs is always of equal dimensions. It is not every decision to use drugs that can properly or fairly be characterized as a decision made in the exercise of free choice. The will of an individual can be overborne, or undermined, not only by acts of another person, but also the pressure of circumstances. I do not accept that most drug offenders are truly exercising free will when they choose the degradation, despair, criminality and cycle of imprisonment that can follow the initial use of illegal drugs. The circumstances that propel the offender to use drugs are often, if not usually, beyond his or her control. They may or may not be combined with a vulnerable personality or even a weakness of character. Many drug offenders have not had the life experiences or the normal developmental path that permit a conclusion that the decision to take drugs was a decision made in the exercise of a free choice in the sense in which that phrase is ordinarily understood.”

Not that bad choices are excusable, or that all bad choices are a result of bad environments and circumstances.  But I just think that free choice isn’t always as readily available as we, who live a privileged life, imagine.

I definitely think there is a balance.  I think people should be more empathetic about circumstances, but at the same time, drug offenders need to take responsibility to repair the damage that has been done in their lives.  It’s a delicate balance in social work– advocating for those who need it, while empowering people to advocate for themselves and take responsibility for their actions.  For some strange reason, I think we crave a black and white conclusion on people’s poor life outcomes, we want to be able to say, “it’s their fault” or “it’s not their fault”. I think we need to move away from that in order to improve society.

Okay, I’m ready to write about it now.

SPOILER ALERT***************SPOILER ALERT*******************SPOILER ALERT

(All those asterisks make this post look like spam.  Or a really old RPG game.)

Please stop reading if you haven’t seen the movie. Unless you don’t plan on watching it.

I think the best way for me to talk about this is to split up my analysis of The Dark Knight (TDK) in separate categories.

There are my comments about the movie as entertainment:

• Action sequences were delightful.  It makes me wonder why more action movies don’t gamble on the IMAX.  I loved the opening heist.  I loved the great car chase scene at the end.  I loved soaring over the cityscapes.  Staying in line with the first movie, sound and suggestion were used powerfully to create Batman’s presence instead of relying on actual hand to hand combat (like scenes from The Bourne Identity)– great movie trickery at its best.
• Plot development was probably this movie’s greatest strength.  Even though Batman is my favorite comic, it’s been a long time since I’ve read them and I felt a little rusty.  Batman Begins deviated quite a bit from Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One but it was so enjoyable that I didn’t mind.  I readily accepted the new twists.  The same happened for TDK.  I only wish they didn’t kill Two-Face.  I mean, I understand that they needed to in order to explore the depth of their themes, but I wish that they could have explored his complex character in future sequels (there will be sequels, right?).  I enjoyed The Joker’s antics, especially the ferry sinking quandary and his constant mockery of the mob.  One of the best scenes of the movie was when The Joker showed up for the fund-raising cocktail party for Harvey Dent at Wayne manor.  It was such an arresting and horrifying moment to mix the faceless and vulnerable elite of Gotham with one of its worst villians.  It seems like usually the crimes are committed in dark, sketchy neighborhoods in abandoned warehouses and factories.  It was jarring to see The Joker in a ballroom underneath sparkling chandeliers.  This was fantastically symbolic of the eventual inability to keep the two things separate if untamed.
• Casting was exemplary for the most part.  Never in a million years would I have picked Heath Ledger as The Joker but what incredible vision it was to see how that would end up being one of the greatest casting choices.  Maggie Gyllenhaal was a terrible choice for Rachel Dawes.  Anytime a movie or television show changes actors for a particular role, they better make sure that they make the audience fall in love with the new actor or it is usually a disaster.  Casino Royale is a prime example of how to succeed at this.  People love Daniel Craig and I didn’t hear a single person wishing for Pierce Brosnan’s return.
• Romantic interest was weak.  Really weak.  I know the romantic interest isn’t the most important relationship in a superhero movie, but it’s kind of critical in this one.  It bothers me when people half-ass this aspect.  It was weak in Ironman and it was even weaker here.  And no, it’s not because Maggie’s not a knockout.  There’s more to it then that.  They just had no chemistry together.  I really had to use my imagination on this one.  I mean, if Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner can have chemistry in The Bodyguard (to the point where I would reference it here, so many years later), then it’s fair to expect that “one of the greatest movies of all time” would have great chemistry between the superhero and love interest.
• Character development.  I wonder how many people watched TDK as a standalone without having first watched Batman Begins.  I think this movie relied a little too heavy on the prequel for character development.  The physical discipline showcased in the Batman Begins barely trickled into the TDK and there wasn’t a concentrated effort to develop as deep of a respect for his character in the audience.  There was a general admiration but not as much awe for what he was trying to accomplish.  This was worsened by his cheesy Batman voice.  I had to fight the urge to giggle sometimes.  I think Aaron Eckhart did a fine job as Harvey Dent.  But his character didn’t require as much depth.  The Joker’s character development was the most profound.  While I do think Heath should win an Oscar for his performance, I think the screenwriting deserves a lot of the credit.  Actors can only do so much with the roles they are given.  I absolutely love the scene when Batman is barreling down on The Joker on his Batpod (super motorcycle) and The Joker stands braces himself, wishing for death.  That was brilliant.
• TDK Gadgetry was not too impressive for me.  I enjoyed the Batpod but it wasn’t really that cutting edge.  According to WIRED, “The Bat-Pod’s forward-swooping design allows the rider to steer with his shoulders. Currently only one stuntman in the world has the skills to drive it.”  Oh and I thought the cellphone sonar technology was pretty lame.  I mean, the idea is cool, but the setup looked like a bad ripoff of The Matrix.  I think I was most amazed by Christian Bale’s physique.  My goodness.  Not in a drooling kind of way but a very objective assessment and appreciation kind of way.

So, in conclusion, I really enjoyed the movie.  I just don’t think it’s the “best movie evar!!!” or anything silly like that.  I told the husband that I don’t think we’ll be referencing this movie when we’re 40 years old.  And I think that’s the true test of a good movie (and other things): time.

On a side note, one of the trailers they showed before TDK was for Watchmen.  I’ve been meaning to pick this one up for awhile now and am finally getting around to it.  I ordered it off of Amazon and will let you know my thoughts.  I’m excited about how thick it is.

I’ll write a followup post soon to discuss my comments on TDK’s themes and ideas.

This Saturday we went to BarCamp Houston 3 at the Houston Technology Center and it was overall a pretty cool experience.  There weren’t as many presentations as I thought there would be and there wasn’t the variety of topics I was hoping for but for a FREE, self-run “unconference”, it was definitely worth my while to go.  I’ll keep my eye out for future BarCamps, especially because some of the BarCamp videos of other cities I watched on YouTube showed fairly sophisticated operations.

Unfortunately, some of the sessions that I wanted to go to overlapped with each other so I wasn’t able to see everything I wanted to.  But I wanted to share some highlights from some of the sessions we attended:

Mobile (WAP) Best Practices - David Herrold

• According to a poll on Pinstack, 59% of users surveyed check email while driving, 43% used AIM or BB messenging while driving, and 40% browse the web while driving
• According to Nielsen Mobile Report, 57% of US mobile subscribers were data users (SMS, mobile internet, email, etc.)
• 2.4 billion people use text messaging
• Shortcodes are extremely expensive.  Custom shortcode is $1,000/mo and random shortcode is $500/mo.
• Firefox is coming out with a mobile browser
• Skyfire is coming out with a mobile browser that will support Flash

Next Generation Biofuels: Global Markets & Trends - Will Thurmond

• Non-food source feedstock: Jatropha, algae, recycled waste, and sewage
• Jatropha: “The hardy Jatropha is resistant to drought and pests, and produces seeds containing up to 40% oil. When the seeds are crushed and processed, the resulting oil can be used in a standard diesel engine, while the residue can also be processed into biomass to power electricity plants.” - Wikipedia
• Per Thurmond’s book, Biodiesel 2020: A Global Market Survey, “China recently set aside an area the size of England to produce jatropha and other non-food plants for biodiesel. India has up to 60 million hectares of non-arable land available to produce jatropha, and intends to replace 20% of diesel fuels with jatropha-based biodiesel. In Brazil and Africa, there are significant programs underway dedicated to producing non-food crops jatropha and castor for biodiesel.”
• Algae can be used as feedstock as well and it serves dual purpose because you can use algae to capture carbon emissions.  The idea is to colocate algae plants next to coal plants.

Financing Your Startup 101 - Josh Tabin

• You can invest your 401K or IRA money into your own startup company (Guidant Financial Group specializes in this).  I don’t mean withdraw money (and incur huge penalities and taxes) but direct the investments to your own startup.
• Need to read Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki
• Only approach Angel Investors when you have a product or something concrete (more than just an idea)
• Prepare your 5-minute pitch
• Small Business Loans are the most difficult way to secure funding
• Assess how proprietary your idea is, most ideas aren’t.  Most Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists do not like NDAs and will not agree to sign them
• The market is the most important.  You can have a great product/technology/idea but if the market is not ready for it or not receptive, you’ve got nothing
• Your team is second most important.  [Aside: Reminds me of YouNoodle, they take team relationships into account when predicting future value of startup companies]
• Comment from the attendees: “Providing data on market research and market demand is one of the most persuasive things you can include in your pitch.”

It wasn’t so much the things I learned directly from BarCamp that I enjoyed the most.  It was being in an environment where I was surrounded by dreamers, entrepreneurs– people who were doers and not just talkers.  It was really encouraging when during one of the sessions someone polled the group to see how many people had started a new company in the last 3-5 years and how many of them were already generating profits.  I knew I was in good company.  There was also plenty of downtime to talk and think things over.  It jump started some new conversations between the husband and I and shaped some of my ideas for the future.

I think I’ve mentioned this before but in intermediate school I took an architectural graphics course as one of my electives.  We learned the basics about how to build a house.  I was surprised to learn that not only were there standard sizes for everything (doors, windows, etc), there are also standard space requirements.  For example, there needs to be a certain amount of clearance around a door to in order for there to be good design.  There also needs to be a certain amount of space between a toilet and the door and the sink.  Our teacher would criticize us for trying to squeeze things too closely together because he said someone actually living in the house we were designing would find it uncomfortable.  (Sidenote: I had the great idea to design a medieval castle for my final project so I didn’t have to follow any of the architectural standards for it.)

I know a lot of homes break these standards.  Especially in dense metropolitan cities like NY, condos and apartments completely ignore these standards.  I’m okay with that because I know real estate is expensive.

What really irks me is when I visit a large public restroom in a restaurant and whoever measured the stall space didn’t follow the standards.  I really hate it when the stall doors open inwards and I have to risk pressing my knee pits against the rim of the bowl in order to close the door.  Gross.  And yeah, maybe smaller bathroom stalls are cheaper but it sure is a lousy way to skimp.